Generous Donor Helps Start New Y Playing to Learn Program

YMCA-YWCA of Northeast Avalon CEO Jason Brown, Board Chair Gerry Carew, Y Donor Elinor Gill Ratcliffe, Y General Manager of Children’s Services Maxine Mercer, and Board Vice Chair Craig Rowe attend cheque presentation for new Y Playing to Learn Centre at 34 New Cove Road.

Elinor Gill Ratcliffe has given $20,000.00 to help the Y start a new Playing to Learn Program for pre-school age children.  The program will operate all day 5 days a week and is based on the principle that children learn through play.  Certified staff will deliver the program to children following the national Y Playing to Learn curriculum.  It is located at the Y’s New Cove Road location in St. John’s.

“I am just so pleased and honoured the Y would use my gift this way,” says Elinor Gill Ratcliffe, “children are our future, and this will help give these children a great start.”

The program is licensed by the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador.  Both provincial and Y financial assistance is available to those who qualify.

“This gift helps us start a program we would not have been able to without Elinor’s support, she is a great Y person and a very generous donor,” says YMCA-YWCA of Northeast Avalon CEO Jason Brown.

The Y is the largest provider of not for profit charitable child care in Canada.

Parents struggle to find quality care for their children.  This new program adds 16 spaces to the Y Children’s Services operation.  In addition to health programs and employment & enterprise programs, the Y operates licensed school age child care programs at 13 schools in St. John’s, Torbay, and Mount Pearl, a kinder care program for kindergarten aged children in St. John's, licensed pre-school programs and pre-school & toddler programs in St. John’s and Mount Pearl, and summer day camps in St. John’s, Mount Pearl, and CBS.

The YMCA-YWCA of Northeast Avalon is a multi-service charity serving our communities since 1854.