Gabby Hodges, owner of Gabby’s Guppies, stands in the child care center’s future Hancock space with her daughters, Emilia and Ellie, Monday night. She plans to be able to open the space for 46 children this spring. (Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette)

HANCOCK — The Copper Country’s child care needs are getting a little closer to being met. 

Gabby’s Guppies, which currently operates in Lake Linden, is planning to expand to a new location in Hancock at the Hancock Community Hub, in the former Hirvonen Hall building. 

Owner Gabby Hodges said the new space will have four classrooms and availability for 46 children. She hopes to be able to open this spring.

She’s been thinking about a bigger location for more than a year. Her 12-child home care location has a waitlist of 37 children. 

“This opportunity fell into our laps, and it was a silver platter handed to us where I don’t think we would have had this great of an opportunity,” she said. 

Earlier this month, the Hancock Planning Commission approved a special-use permit for the child care center at its November meeting.

“That is a great addition and a great use of space up in that Hancock Community Hub,” she said. 

Before Gabby’s Guppies can begin the new construction needed to complete the space, the state needs to approve the fire review plan. 

“Once we get that, everything should fall into place really quickly,” Hodges said.

Hodges started Gappy’s Guppies two years ago after her daycare provider, Marlene Beaudoin, died unexpectedly in a car crash. Finding herself in the position of needing child care, she encountered long waitlists everywhere. 

“Because I couldn’t find the high-quality care I wanted, I opened my own day care,” she said. 

Hodges operated with six kids until January. Because there’s been such a need for daycare in the area, she decided to expand. She and her husband now operate a group home for 12 children; he stepped away from his job of seven years to come work with her.

With the greater number of children, it will also mean more employees. Hodges has hired four of the 11 they’ll need. She’ll begin hiring more once they get a firmer start date. 

Before Hodges signed her lease at the new building, she tried to gauge how much demand there would be. She knew there was a shortfall — about 300 children in Houghton County without child care. But she also knew about the number of stay-a-home moms. 

The response she got from both current and prospective daycare parents has been “overwhelming in the best way,” Hodges said. She’s still working through all of the messages and e-mails. 

Four of her daycare kids have parents who live and work in Houghton, but travel to Lake Linden every day to drop their children off and pick them up. 

“I think that’s 80 minutes a day,” Hodges said. “So they’re like, ‘Heck, yeah, open up a center in Hancock.'”

The Lake Linden in-home center will also stay active until everything is fully switched over, to provide a “nice transition,” Hodges said. 

It also takes a village to create the place where children are raised. Hodges credited Sara Lahti for her help. Lahti is a board member with Right Start U.P., the non-profit that purchased the first three floors of Hirvonen Hall for the Hancock Community Hub. She also has previous experience on the board of a child care center, which Hodges said has been invaluable. 

Right Start is covering all the construction costs, adding back onto the center’s costs in their lease over an extended period of time. 

“The huge startup cost of it would be the construction, and it’s not something we have to worry about off the bat,” Hodges said. 

She’s been working with Abbey Carlson of the Keweenaw Family Resource Center, which has provided a $20,000 startup grant to help with the infant-toddler rooms. Through Dan Yoder, she’s also developed a business plan allowing her to have a financial forecast for three years out.

Hodges enjoys giving parents the same kind of peace of mind she had as a new parent dropping her children off for the day. 

“I was able to drop off my child and then go to work and focus on work, knowing that they were loved and happy and learning,” she said. “I really enjoy being the second mom to children, if that makes sense, and like it being that comfort space for them when their parents aren’t present.”

The proposed hours for the Hancock site are 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The center will accept tri-share and subsidy Department of Health and Human Services payments, Hodges said. 

Anyone interested in applying for open positions can apply on Indeed.

People wanting their children to be added to Gabby’s Guppies’ interview/waitlist can contact Hodges at 906-231-0708.