Spink County Daycare: A Bright New Beginning for Redfield’s Youngest Residents

The new Spink County Daycare is bright, warm, cheery, and modern.

There are soft wicker baskets overflowing with toys, wooden shelves filled with books, and little feet pattering across over 5,800 square feet of beautifully renovated indoor space in the former Wells Fargo Bank building, right off Main Street.

“We’ve been open for a few weeks now and things are going so well!” said Redfield Area Development Corp. executive director Gia Schieffer. “The children have really been enjoying their time at the daycare. Some have never attended daycare before and have seemed to acclimate really well. The staff have done a great job keeping them busy with games, crafts, walks outside and fun music.”

Infants, toddlers, and preschoolers up to the age of five have all enrolled since the facility’s official ribbon cutting ceremony in August, adding to the community’s wonderful roster of existing caregiving facilities.

Not only does the new daycare center give Redfield’s working parents and caregivers another option, but it also helps alleviate the waitlists of the area’s other daycare centers.

“The Spink County Daycare is licensed for 102 children so we have plenty of room to grow,” added Schieffer. 

A Project With Positive Impact for the Whole Community

“It's so amazing to see this project come to life after three long years of planning and has already proven to be a huge asset to our community,” she said. “We've created some wonderful jobs as well which shows how impactful this project has been all around to our local economic development.”

It was a long road, Schieffer acknowledged, but worth it.

“There’s been a need for daycare for twenty years,” said Adam Hansen, Finance Officer for the City of Redfield in an interview with Dakota News Now. “We have certain people that drive forty miles one way to take the kids to daycare and come back to Redfield to work.”

The $1.2 million project received an abundance of community donations and grant money, with the board financing the rest.

Since the daycare project began in the fall of 2023, there was a tremendous amount of research, planning, fundraising and collaboration throughout the community, receiving support from both the City of Redfield and the Redfield Area Development Corporation, who served as main partners.

Additional support came from residents and local businesses including Dakotaland Federal Credit Union, RDO Equipment Co., Community Memorial Hospital, the South Dakota Community Foundation, Redfield Food Center, Redfield Energy, and Modern Woodman.  

“At this time we are now focusing our fundraising efforts on paying off our debt,” said Schieffer. “We would like to become debt free.”

The Spink County Daycare also plans to add staff as the interest for enrollment grows, bringing more jobs to the area. 

A Place to Live, Work, and Grow

Whether it’s making homeownership more attainable, working with community partners in the development of our new daycare center, or discovering how to repurpose available properties and buildings, Redfield Area Development Corporation remains committed to our mission to stimulate and expand economic, industrial and residential development for the area of Spink County.

Thanks to all of our partners, residents, and business owners for making Redfield an amazing place to live, work, and grow.