Anne Scarffe, Gilpin County. Eagles’ Nest Early Learning Center at 10655 Highway 119, Black Hawk, Colorado, started a take home food bag project after Covid-19, in partnership with the Food Bank of the Rockies. Eagles’ Nest, is a non-profit organization that qualified as a partner agency with the Food Bank of the Rockies. Eagles’ Nest submitted an application and was approved within a week. 

They have been putting together food bags each week filled with produce and shelf-stable food to distribute to Gilpin families. As a partner of Food Bank of the Rockies, Eagles’ Nest receives food at a very discounted price. This allows the center to save on their food budget while also giving back to the community. 

Eagles’ Nest Early Learning Center was started in 1996 after the County conducted a needs assessment of Gilpin County’s population showing an Early Childhood Center would be a necessity to provide childcare for families living in the County. It is located on the edge of Gilpin Schools property, but is not associated with the schools.  

Eagles’ Nest is open Monday through Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and provides high quality education to children ages eight weeks to five years old. Before Covid, they were open Monday to Friday. Covid regulations reduced the enrollment of the number of students to half, and are now allowed to increase the students while using social distancing. The center has terrific teachers who are caring and well qualified.

Last year, Executive Director Kayla Lowe and the Assistant Director Alyson Brown in a separate assistance program, volunteered their time to create the Mountain Backpack Program for Gilpin County. This program offered all children within the community a backpack to take home each week full of meals and snacks. This program proved successful, but came to a halt when Covid-19 struck. Their hope is this program will be up and running again soon. 

Over the last few years, the center has seen a tremendous amount of growth and development. Executive Director Kayla Lowe took her position in 2017. Before that, she was a teacher at Eagles’ Nest working on achieving her Early Childhood Education Degree. She had worked in the Coal Creek Canyon area previously.

When promoted to the director position, Lowe had many goals in mind for the organization. She has continued to implement Colorado Shines Quality Rating and Creative Curriculum. Eagles’ Nest has a Level 3 rating and hopes in 2021 when the center has its next review, they will achieve the highest rating of a Level 5.

Eagles’ Nest is currently accepting new students in their preschool and infant classes. Eagles’ Nest operates at a lower teacher to student ratio to meet the new social distancing guidelines set forth by the State of Colorado. As families come and go, so do members of the Board of Directors. Eagles’ Nest is also currently seeking new members to join the Board. This is volunteer work that oversees its operations and fundraising. A typical term is three years and requires a member to attend one meeting a month. 

If you are interested please contact enelc@eaglesnestelc.org or kaylal@eaglesnestelc.org.

(Originally published in the Octobre 15, 2020, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)