ABOUT
US

OUR MISSION

The mission of the Jenkintown Day Nursery Foundation is to help make quality early childhood education and care affordable for families in our region.

The Foundation focuses on providing tuition and other financial assistance to families living or working in Montgomery, Philadelphia and Bucks counties in southeastern Pennsylvania.

We continue to have a close, but not exclusive, relationship with Jenkintown Day Nursery in Jenkintown, Pa., which our founder opened a century ago. Read her story — and ours — below:

Looking back…
our original building!

The Jenkintown Day Nursery opened on March 4, 1903 in the old Borough of Jenkintown building in the former jail. By October 5, there were 17 children, and JDN outgrew its first site within 6 months.

OUR HISTORY

It was a bitter cold February in 1903 when Mrs. Theodore B. Culver heard about small children who were left alone in a barn all day while their parents went to work. When she checked to see if this was true, she found the children huddled together in the straw to keep warm.
Surmising that there were other families who had no safe place to leave their children while they worked, Mrs. Culver took immediate action. She quickly found a safe, warm place and recruited volunteers to care for the children. In March of 1903, the Jenkintown Day Nursery opened its doors to six children, six days a week. Their parents were charged six cents a day.
Within six months of opening, larger quarters were needed, and JDN was moved to Thomas and Water Streets in the Borough of Jenkintown. In the early years, the Nursery was sustained by contributions, charity teas, rummage sales, and donations of cash, wood, coal, food and clothing. Fees were set on a sliding scale based on income.

By the 1960s, the need for child care had increased. The current facility at Baeder and Hilltop roads was built, and the nursery moved there in 1965. Thanks to generous donations for the Centennial celebration in 2003, the Playhouse, a multi-purpose building which accommodates science, movement and music classes and indoor play was built.

Since its inception, the nursery has carried on its mission of providing quality, affordable early education and care, evolving its programs to match new understanding about how children learn.

For many decades, a volunteer board oversaw operations and raised funds to ensure the nursery’s ability to provide scholarships to its families.
In 2015, the nursery’s board and operations structure changed. Operation of JDN was transferred to Play & Learn, a non-profit organization which has 12 early learning and childcare centers in Montgomery County. The Jenkintown Day Nursery Foundation was established, with several longtime members of the JDN Board of Directors as the new JDNF Board of Directors.

The Foundation continues to have a close relationship with Jenkintown Day Nursery, continuing to provide many of its families with scholarship aid along a sliding scale. However, the scholarships now are more broadly available, with many families at other Play & Learn sites receiving assistance, and, as funding is available, for children attending other quality centers in the area. Download an application for a Jenkintown Day Nursery Scholarship.

In addition, JDNF oversees distribution of assistance from the Jeanne Chauveau Trust, which offers one-time grants to families in our region who face hardship due to medical needs. These grants are generally distributed in the form of tuition assistance. Learn more about the Chauveau Trust.

With these changes, the Jenkintown Day Nursery Foundation is well-equipped to continue supporting working families in our community well into the 21st century — in keeping with the mission set by Annie Culver so many years ago.

OUR BOARD MEMBERS