A child care center needed a home. Battle Creek had an answer.

A yearslong collaboration transformed the vacant, city-owned Valentine Center into the new home of Garden of Dreams

By Nick J. Buckley / For Black Squirrel News

BATTLE CREEK – Garden of Dreams needed a new home.

The Valentine Center needed new life.

Bronson Battle Creek Hospital needed to better support the child care needs of its workforce.

Those needs converged at the Valentine Center at Irving Park, where a vacant child care center has been transformed into the new home of Garden of Dreams Community Preschool and Childcare. Community partners gathered July 30 for a ribbon cutting and tour of the renovated building. The center is expected to serve about 80 children and employ 25 staff members when it opens this fall.

Assistant City Manager Marcie Gillette said the project shows how Battle Creek’s thinking about child care has changed, with access to care increasingly viewed as a community issue rather than one that affects families alone.

Local governments often focus on services such as police, streets, sewer and water because those are the things communities expect them to provide. Gillette said Battle Creek is taking a broader view.

“Our responsibility is to provide the healthiest community that we can, and child care is a piece of that infrastructure.”

Finding solutions in a fragile child care system

The Valentine Center was initially envisioned as a second Garden of Dreams location that would add child care capacity. Garden of Dreams has operated at First Congregational Church since 2005, but those plans shifted after the church announced plans to sell its building, turning an expansion into a necessary move.

The city-owned Valentine Center had been largely vacant since Kids Campus abruptly closed following the death of longtime director Roberta “Bobbie” Wetherill-Zull in September 2023. At the time, families were suddenly left scrambling for care, and because the child care license was held in Wetherill-Zull’s name, the center could not simply continue operating.

Across the street, Bronson Battle Creek Hospital was exploring ways to better support employees who depend on reliable child care to remain in the workforce.

Bronson President and CEO Bill Manns said Bronson joined other organizations in asking how they could ensure families had a safe place to send their children.

“It’s amazing what a community can do when we come together around shared need,” Manns said.

The project ultimately brought together the City of Battle Creek, Garden of Dreams Community Preschool and Childcare, Bronson Healthcare, the Bronson Battle Creek Hospital Community Partners Board, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Pulse at the W.E. Upjohn Institute, IFF and other community partners to renovate the city-owned Valentine Center and preserve it as a place where children, families and educators can grow.

“The Kellogg Foundation invested in this project because expanding high-quality childcare strengthens children, supports working families and creates the conditions for communities to thrive,” said Megan Russell Johnson, program officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

While the Valentine Center will preserve and expand access to child care, community leaders say it is one piece of a broader effort to address the region’s continuing shortage of affordable, high-quality care.

Gillette said the project’s most immediate impact is the stability it brings to Battle Creek’s child care system.

“What this does is it stabilizes our child care market,” she said. “Without this, there would be a high level of uncertainty.”

Room to grow and explore

For nearly three years, the Valentine Center sat mostly quiet. This fall, children are expected to return to classrooms overlooking Irving Park.

The roughly $1 million renovation was supported by $1.1 million in commitments, including $500,000 from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and $300,000 each from Bronson Healthcare and the Bronson Battle Creek Hospital Community Partners Board.

The renovated center features larger classrooms, more natural light and additional space for children and educators than Garden of Dreams’ previous location.

Outside the windows, Irving Park’s lagoons, mature trees and familiar waterfowl provide a natural backdrop. Soon, children will venture beyond the fenced playground on walking ropes to explore the park as part of their day.

Garden of Dreams Executive Director Robin Beasley said the environment surrounding the center will become an extension of the classroom.

“You can’t help but feel the serenity,” Beasley said. “It’ll help children with special needs… it’s calming.”

Samantha Hager, lead teacher in Garden of Dreams’ classroom for children ages 12 to 24 months, said the greatest change may be that educators can devote their energy where it belongs.

“Giving us the support for a new building was great,” Hager said. “We’re not fixing stuff as teachers. We’re focusing on the kids. We’re not fixing tables. We’re not changing rooms around. We have the space to grow at the center.”

How we reported this: This story was written with research from local news sources, press releases and interviews conducted during the July 30, 2026 ribbon cutting ceremony at the Valentine Center.

Disclosure: Nick J. Buckley was contracted to produce separate content for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Every Child Thrives platform. This story was independently reported, and coverage was independently determined by the Black Squirrel News editorial team.