photo by: Contributed photo/ECKAN

Tornado damage is pictured at Building Blocks Daycare, 1411 East 1850 Road, east of Lawrence.

A Lawrence day care center is currently without a home after an EF-4 tornado on May 28 heavily damaged its building. It is requesting the public’s help in finding a temporary facility.

The families of 70 children, including 17 ECKAN Early Head Start children, depended upon Building Blocks Daycare at 1411 East 1850 Road, according to a news release from Sherri Scott, the executive secretary of ECKAN, or the East Central Kansas Economic Opportunity Corporation.

ECKAN partners with Building Blocks to provide classroom space for its Head Start classroom programs for children ages 6 weeks to 3 years.

ECKAN’s Head Start director, Clara Cox, visited the damaged day care site this week.

“We are so grateful that no one was hurt,” Cox said in the news release. “The children’s families are all low-income, and parents are either working or going to school full-time, which means that loss of child care jeopardizes their jobs and/or schooling.”

The Kansas Department for Children and Families, Child Care Aware and ECKAN have all been supporting families to find temporary licensed child care until Building Blocks is able to find a location, Cox said.

“ECKAN appeals to the Lawrence community to see if there are any possible locations for Building Blocks to continue serving children and families long enough for them to clean up the tornado’s destruction and rebuild their facility,” Cox said.

Ideas and information about facilities may be sent to buildingblocksdirectors@gmail.com.

Building Blocks Daycare Center