FREE KINDERGARTEN APPEAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23225, 24 June 1937, Page 3

FREE KINDERGARTEN APPEAL

FUNDS FOR USEFUL WORK To-morrow the Dunedin Free Kindergarten Association will make an appeal for funds for the carrying on of its increasing activities by means of a street collection. The work of this organisation should commend itself to all who have the interests of children at heart. In the association’s schools, which are free to all children, is provided a programme of interesting welfare, health and educational guidance which comprises a splendid preparation for later school life. In attractive. airy and pleasant surroundings the children are cared for and watched over by an expert staff whose one aim is the preparation of th,e child mind and the child body for the schooldays that are to come.

The appeal this year is more urgent than usual inasmuch as for some years the association was without a Government grant, during which time it was found necessary to close down one school and curtail activities generally. In addition equipment suffered and there was a general halt in development The Government grant is once again available now, but it is not a straightout payment of a given sum. It takes the form of a subsidy which is dependent on the amount raised by public subscription. Therefore the more money the association can raise locally the more assistance it will receive from the Government.

The school that was temporarily closed has now been reopened, and at the present time the association has six schools in operation, in which no fewer than 300 children between the ages of three years and five are accommodated. The association hopes to be able to-morrow to raise a substantial sum that will permit of various desirable avenues of development being explored, and appeals to the general public to render all the support possible.