Arc of Southeast Iowa receiving their grant at the Washington County Riverboat Foundation ceremony on May 17.

The Arc of Southeast Iowa is a first-time recipient of a grant from the Washington County Riverboat Foundation.

They received $15,000 for their new preschool program for disabled children. The plans for a preschool began when Arc started an afterschool program for junior high kids. After that Arc received feedback from the community requesting the program extend to other ages, in particular preschool and daycare age. Arc of Southeast Iowa President and CEO Karen Degroot describes the school’s infrastructure needs, “We had the facility, but we didn’t have space that was divided well. We just had one large room and we want it divided into three small rooms so we can have three ages at the same time onsite.”

Degroot said the Riverboat foundation grant gave them the last piece of funding they needed to complete the project. Degroot comments on the grant award, “It was wonderful, everyone was in such a great mood the next day. We had it hanging on our wall, so everybody got to see it when they came in, we were just ecstatic.” Degroot says the new preschool will mirror some of their “Little Tikes” summer camp programming that serves kindergarten through elementary age children. The Arc plans to hire a curriculum director for the school, and facility renovation should be completed by June 30 for the school likely opening in Iowa City this fall.