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April 15th deadline for donations to fundraising challenge for Canton Day Care Center approaching

Posted 4/5/18

CANTON -- The family of Robert (Bob) and Esther Weatherup Thompson has set April 15 as the deadline for individual contributions to be matched by its family foundation to help raise funds for the …

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April 15th deadline for donations to fundraising challenge for Canton Day Care Center approaching

Posted

CANTON -- The family of Robert (Bob) and Esther Weatherup Thompson has set April 15 as the deadline for individual contributions to be matched by its family foundation to help raise funds for the Canton Day Care Center’s capital expansion project.

The project focuses on building out the second floor of the Center’s facility at 205 State Street Road in Canton. The facility adjoins United Helpers Maplewood Campus, where Esther resided for six years prior to her death in 2017.

Contributions will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $20,000 in an attempt by the family to raise $40,000 toward the $400,000 cost of the project, said a press release from the center.

Dee Burlingame, president of the Canton Day Care Center’s board of directors, says “The project will double the Center’s capacity for children ages 6 weeks to 12 years old. We hope this matching donor challenge inspires parents of Canton Day Care Center children, their families and friends, and others near and far who know the Thompson family, who know the area, or who value quality day care to contribute soon and help the family help us with the capital campaign underway.”

Those interested in participating in this donor challenge by the April 15 deadline can make checks payable to Canton Day Care Center Inc. and mail them to 205 State Street Rd, Canton, NY 13617.

Donations can also be made online at www.cantondaycarecenter.org/give.

For more information about the capital expansion project and the family’s challenge, visit www.cantondaycarecenter.org/expansion or call 315-379-1829.

Since 2005, when the family of Bob and Esther Thompson created the Thompson-Weatherup Family Charitable Foundation, it has supported scholarships for graduating high school seniors, college students in nursing and early childhood education majors, programs of non-profit organizations including the Canton Day Care Center, and more.

Now, as a component fund of the Northern New York Community Foundation, the foundation is once again supporting the Canton Day Care Center in honor of Esther who loved children and devoted her life to her family.

Esther and Bob met while attending Canton ATI (now SUNY Canton) and married in 1944. They had ten children, including two sets of twins, over 18 years. And as parents, they nurtured and educated their children while operating their family-owned dairy farm in Lisbon.

“My wife had unlimited potential and was extremely well-read and well-informed. Yet she devoted her life to her family and found raising our children to be personally rewarding. But as our children married, got jobs, and had children, we saw the need for quality day care for our own grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And at the end of my wife’s life, she enjoyed watching children, including our great-grandson, Lucas, at the Canton Day Care Center while a resident at Maplewood,” said Bob Thompson.

[img_assist|nid=231557|title=|desc=|link=none|align=middle|width=450|height=304]The family of Esther and Robert (Bob) Thompson includes ten children plus twenty-one grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren. In this photo, Esther is holding their great-grandson, Lucas Howie, who attended the Canton Day Care Center for almost seven years. Esther, who died in 2017, devoted her life to shaping the lives of children. Her interest in and commitment to children now underpins the family’s desire to support the Canton Day Care Center in its quest to expand services and provide a nurturing environment for even more children to grow, discover, and learn.