A group of moms from Maple Valley have formed Maple Valley Family Circle to continue Toddler Time and Family Movie Night at the Greater Maple Valley Community Center on a short term basis while they search for a long term solution.

The moms — Farinaz Barker, Christie Cummings, Tonia Mosieur, Laura Skobin and Joy Stramer — came together after the Community Center announced in early October that at the end of the month the Children’s and Family programs at the center would be discontinued due to budget cuts.

“We didn’t even plan it (to become a group), we just came together and kept going,” Mosieur said.

Mark Pursely, executive director of the community center, explained in an interview with The Reporter in October that more than 70 percent of the Community Center’s annual budget comes from various grant funding sources. The rest comes from program fees, fundraising, facility rentals, program sponsorships and other small donations. Much of the grant funding, Pursely said, is designated for specific programs and the money has to be spent on those programs. Pursely attributed the need to make changes to the offerings at the center to years of running a budget deficit and using reserves to make ends meet.

The moms, as well as others, met with Pursely after the announcement and began attending Maple Valley City Council meetings and Community Center Board meetings.

“The more we looked into it, the more we looked to council members, we just found out it was a really complicated situation and not an easy solution,” Cummings said.

Maple Valley Family Circle naturally came together as the women continued to talk about options and brainstormed ideas.

Those ideas included asking the city of Maple Valley to provide short term funding to continue the programs through the end of the year, and then asking the city to earmark a part of the funding it provides for the Community Center specifically for Children’s and Family programs.

“All we’ve been able to work out so far is that we are volunteering,” Cummings said. “We had to create a new group.”

Skobin explained that the group is allowed to use the space at the Community Center for free and they are continuing to run both Toddler Time and Family Movie Night on a volunteer basis at least through the end of the year. In mid December they will reassess and go from there.

“We’ve been assured that it isn’t their intention to start charging us,” Skobin said. “They are currently letting us use the facilities free of charge. We don’t have it in writing that is going to continue, but they have given us their word. We also are now simultaneously pursuing working hand in hand with the Community Center Board of Directors in fundraising efforts.”

Additionally, Maple Valley Presbyterian Church, which had been the site of two days of Toddler Time, is continuing to run Toddler Time two days a week, now independently of the Community Center.

The long term hope of the group is that the Community Center will again be able to fund and run the programs.

“We are more than happy to work as volunteers in the interim, but our main goal, in the future, is to have the programs be ran by the Community Center again,” Barker said. “That is what we believe the Community Center is about, serving the needs of the majority of the community. They (Board members) said at that meeting (with Board members) that yes, they are willing to, if we can come up with a plan or a number as to how much it would take to run the programs again. So then that’s what we’ve been doing at this point is meeting and coming up with how much we think the staffing would cost and supplies.”

The women all said that they stepped up to fight for the programs and decided to get involved because they believe they are vital programs of huge benefit to the community.

“Having somewhere where so many of their gross motor, fine motor, pretend play, linguistic needs are met, in an indoor, enclosed, warm place is amazing,” Skobin said of the importance of Toddler Time.

The women also spoke about what Toddler Time has meant to them and how it helped them connect, make friends, and how the group also offers support to the moms, and to all the different caregivers, who come.

“It’s not just for toddlers or kids, but this is how I met friends,” Cummings said.

Barker added that a big reason she wanted to get involved was because of what the programs mean to her own children.

“That, I think is one of the main reasons we want to continue for now, is because we didn’t want to tell our own kids that it was done,” Barker said. “That was the hardest thing.”

Barker said after the initial tension between them and the Community Center staff, the working relationship between them has improved.

“I would like to say personally, I can’t speak for everyone, since we’ve assumed this volunteer role, we’ve had a lot of great reception from the employees at the Community Center,” Skobin said. “They’ve been helpful, accommodating, and I really do feel that they’ve kept their word and done their part to provide the facilities and be helpful to us in that way. It’s nice that we’ve reached a point of good communication and it feels like collaboration.”

Skobin said she hopes they can even reach new families who have never been involved at the Community Center before and that families continuing to come to the programs will be a vital part of the groups’ success going forward.

“That people believe in it enough to keep coming even though the faces have changed a bit, means a lot,” Skobin said. “We can show up every Tuesday and Thursday and let our four kids play together, but the fact that the community still wants it really makes it worth while.”

The next Family Movie Night is scheduled for Dec. 13 at the Greater Maple Valley Community Center where “Despicable Me 2” will be shown. The cost is $5 per person.