Murray Bridge institution Minya Porlar Creche closes its doors after 22 years

Current and former families joined staff and children at a “bittersweet farewell” earlier this month, saying goodbye to the ac.care operated Minya Porlar Creche which has been a mainstay of South Australia’s Murray Bridge community for 22 years. 

 

“We’ve done our best at supporting our kids (sic.), supporting their family in being flexible where we can, but it just came to a point where the service wasn’t viable anymore and the facility couldn’t be renovated to the new standards, and we did look at if we could move the creche somewhere else but it just wasn’t financially viable for us,” ac.care CEO Shane Maddocks said. 

 

“We’re really sad that it’s not continuing but we know families have got support with other centres in the town and hopefully nobody has been left without the childcare they need.”

 

Throughout the farewell families and children participated in games and running activities, face painting, visits to a petting zoo, and enjoying shared meals. 

 

Former creche attendee Kye Anderson was part of the farewell, having been at the service as an infant before returning 20 years later to complete his own training in early childhood education and care. 

 

Despite his young age when attending, he said he had “many fond memories of the creche” and that giving back to the community that supported him growing up just seemed like the right thing to do.

 

“20 years down the track going back and sort of remembering and helping them out, it’s returning the favour you know like ‘you helped me when I was younger now I’ll come back and enjoy it while I’m older myself’,” Mr Anderson said.

 

“It was a great experience doing training there, apart from not wanting to go back to the office and a couple of kids calling me dad, it’s really rewarding, I feel like I’m doing my part, helping the families that have a busy life, they’re busy working and drop their kids off for us and it was good fun.”

 

Quotes in this piece were sourced from coverage in the Murray Valley Standard. The original story can be accessed here.