A daycare for up to 96 children is moving ahead at Radiant Care Pleasant Manor after Niagara-on-the-Lake council approved a zoning change Tuesday, bringing the town’s younger and older residents together under one roof.
The amendment allows a licensed daycare within the seniors’ residence in Virgil, to be located in the basement of an existing seniors’ apartment building at 1743 Four Mile Creek Rd. The space is being repurposed after a new 160-bed long-term care home was completed on the site late last year.
For Radiant Care, the decision marks a turning point.
“With this decision, it gives us an opportunity now to really mobilize,” said Tim Siemens, the organization’s chief executive officer.
“We have been doing some work behind the scenes with an architect to cast out prospective, preliminary designs — but not going too far until the decision was made.”
Siemens said it is too soon to discuss detailed plans, timelines or a budget, adding he is not aware of any further zoning changes or approvals needed for the site.
But he said the idea behind the project is already clear.
“Our seniors — they just get a lot of enjoyment of watching children,” Siemens said.
“I can’t begin to describe how many teary eyes, including my own, that I saw,” he said, pointing to a recent visit when about 40 to 60 kindergarten students from St. Davids Public School sang to residents in the facility’s great room.
“These kids were singing, ‘L, O, V, E, we love you’ and other songs,” said Siemens.
“It was just so impactful,” he said. “Having children interacting with seniors and vice versa — it just brings so much joy and strengthens communities.”
