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Tiny Truckers Day Care closes

Clintonville organization low on helpers

By Erik Buchinger


Tiny Truckers Day Care Center held its final day in business Friday, Oct. 26.

Tiny Truckers is a non-profit day care facility established about 40 years ago. The day care had been parent-run, parent-managed and parent-owned.

Mike Papendorf has been a board member for eight years and had been president and vice president of the day care. His daughter attended Tiny Truckers.

He became involved with the organization using his experience working at Bank First in Clintonville.

“Being non-profit, it’s always a struggle to pay the bills day to day,” Papendorf said. “I came on to give advice and guidance and ensure Tiny Truckers would stay financially sound.”

Papendorf said the main reason for the discontinuing of Tiny Truckers is a lack of help and qualified individuals willing to step in.

“Child care is a tough job and unappreciated I think,” Papendorf said. “The pay isn’t great. It’s hard to work with kids sometimes and to do that eight to 10 hours a day, it takes a special person to take that position. The last couple years, we struggled finding help that would work in that environment.”

Papendorf said Tiny Truckers struggled to find a director for the program.

“To find a qualified director is a daunting task,” Papendorf said. “The state limits the amount of time we have to fill that position. With that and given the number of staff to continue operations, we felt this just wasn’t going to be possible.”

Papendorf said about two months ago, the discussions started to lean toward closing down Tiny Truckers. The decision was finalized at the end of September.

“Being licensed, we had strict requirements that we couldn’t meet anymore,” Papendorf said.

Prior to the time of closing, 30 children were attending Tiny Truckers with five workers.

“Our solution was St. Martin,” Papendorf said. “We’d like to thank St. Martin Lutheran Church and School for working with us the last several weeks. St. Martin graciously expanded its program in a very short time that our remaining staff and children had a place of care.”

Papendorf said Tiny Truckers meant a lot to the community.

“To know you have a quality daycare center to take your kids to and know they’ll be taken care of, this is very instrumental to help with learning and growing,” Papendorf said. “Oftentimes, kids will spend more time at the day care than at home.”
Papendorf said resurrecting Tiny Truckers would require a lot of work.

“There’s always a possibility if somebody wants to start it back up and manage it,” Papendorf said. “It would be a lot of work involved in doing that, but you can never say never.”

Papendorf thanked the community for supporting Tiny Truckers and helping it stay in business for 40 years.

“Thank all the parents and staff for years of dedication,” Papendorf said. “Being in business 40 years is not an easy task for most businesses to stay around that long. We had a lot of great supporters, staff and board of directors. Without them, Tiny Truckers would not have lasted this long. There are numerous names to thank, but I’d like to thank everyone or all their dedication and service.”

Papendorf said the building, located at 49 10th St. in Clintonville, will be up for sale. Proceeds will be donated back to various organizations.

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