Parents Protest Stepping Stones Child Care Center Closing - FOX 42: Omaha News, Sports and Weather; kptm.com |

Leah Uko

OMAHA (KPTM) – Upset parents protest the closing of a daycare center that has served the community for 20 years.

The Salvation Army will shut down Stepping Stones Child Care Development Center on January 2^nd.

Parents were told that insufficient funding is why the center cannot stay open. But this reason for parents like Gloryanna is not good enough.

"I hear them say we empathize, we empathize. I don't feel them empathizing with us," she continued. "We were walking along here and several people from the building said that we need to get a job—I've got two. And my third [job] is my children."

Gloryanna stood outside the new Salvation Army Western Division Headquarters with signs—shaming Salvation Army for spending $2.37 million on the new facility.

Her question to the divisional commander Major Paul D. Smith is how they can buy this building—at this price—if they have no money to keep Stepping Stones open.

She doesn't buy his answer.

"The funds actually didn't come from this area at all," said Smith. "This is our divisional headquarters, which serves all of Nebraska, all of the South Dakota and the western two-thirds of Iowa."

Smith said money spent on the programs and the headquarters comes from two separate entities.

Funding for the building comes from corporate, he said, they have no control over. And a portion of the funding for the center comes from the local community.

"It's not overall division wide fundraising that's falling short," Smith said. "It's the fundraising in Omaha itself."

Gloryanna said she does not care.

"They say it takes a village to raise a child. Where's our village? As American we no longer have a village. It's all about ‘me'."

To her, money would only be an excuse if there were none—not unavailable because of corporate policy.