MORAN — It didn’t take Katie Bigelow long to embark on what she hopes is a long career as a daycare provider.
When Bigelow received her diploma from Iola High School in May, she’d already been in business for a month as the owner/proprietor of Katie’s Daycare.
“I’ve always loved kids,” she explained. “Even when I was a kid, I always had my dolls, and I babysat for years.
“I’ve always kind of known I wanted to do this,” she said.
Bigelow took online courses her senior year while also undergoing the certification process to open her own daycare facility.
Meanwhile, her parents, Bill and Michelle Bigelow, were in the midst of buying what formerly was the Hedgeapple Acres house, a long-time bed-and-breakfast about 2 miles east of Moran.
“My parents weren’t necessarily looking to buy a home, but my dad talked to the owners, and he’s always wanted land.”
The first look at the home was decidedly more spacious than the Bigelows’ former home; perhaps too big.
The westernmost part of the house had been an addition, “and it’s almost entirely separate from the rest of the house,” Bigelow explained. “Mom really didn’t know what she was going to do with it.”
But as they were considering the purchase, last fall, Michelle Bigelow made her daughter an offer.
“She said it’d be perfect for a daycare, and if I wanted to open my own, I could do it there instead of having to buy my own house,” Bigelow said. “My parents were really supportive. They love my interaction with kids, and they love kids, too. They’ve been really accepting of me to have this here, and I’m glad they are. I wouldn’t have been able to do this already.”
From November to April, as Bigelow was finishing her schooling and certification process, Bill Bigelow handled a full renovation of the daycare site, finishing in time for her to open in April.
BIGELOW already had plenty of experience with child care. On top of her regular babysitting gigs as a teen, she’s been regularly watching one young toddler for more than a year.
“Her mother wasn’t able to work because she couldn’t find a daycare provider,” Bigelow explained.
Bigelow worked briefly at Munchkinland in Iola, but garnered most of her knowhow from Moran’s Donna Ross.
