Child Development Center shows off improvements

The open house and ribbon cutting gave CDC staff and children an opportunity to show off a lengthy list of improvements to the center’s playground that have been made during the past year.

Dr. Kim Madsen, CDC director, said about $6,000 of private funding was raised for the improvements. The area now features a nature trail with a variety of trees, shrubs and flowers. In all, about 120 plantings were placed in the area.

In addition, the playground has a refinished climber, new chain link fence, more sand, a garden area and concrete curbing that outlines the trail.

Among the event’s special guests were Jerry Moss of Chadron, who designed a trellis for the playground, and Berdine Maginnis Strashin of Crawford, a former CSC employee and regional training officer for Head Start. In the early 1970s Maginnis helped persuade the Nebraska State College System Board of Trustees to approve the Child Development Center upon construction of the Burkhiser Technology Complex.

“I went to the board and said, ‘You have this new building going up and our most important resource is families and children. You need to provide a space where CSC students can come watch children and how they grow and develop,’” Maginnis said.

She said the improvements to the facility are remarkable.

“In the beginning, we just had a makeshift playground that volunteers put up,” she said. “They have really added to it. It looks really nice.”