ALBANY — The Family Tree Child Care Development Center, which recently saw a facility expansion, has also added something a little extra to the building.
Jenni Bode usually spends her days as a graphic artist for Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital designing everything from brochures and patient literature to signage and advertising campaigns.
When the Family Tree expansion was in its early planning stages, design teams wanted to add hallway murals to the facility, but the cost of commercial designs and output were prohibitive. Bode then stepped up and volunteered to take on the challenge.
“It was a complicated project, but it’s all worth it,” she said. “I was just excited to have the opportunity.”
Bode constructed a miniature-to-scale paper model of the entire building using architectural renderings and blueprints. The one-inch high roofless model captures every window, door and turn, including placements for light switches and other elements that needed to be incorporated into the artwork.
She started with original watercolors on illustration boards, piecing together a story that starts at the farmyard with renderings of sheep, pigs, horses and ducks, to name a few. The illustrations were then scanned electronically with special layout computer software and then reproduced by Matrix in Lee County to wall-sized vinyl murals.
“We thought it would be more cost-effective to do graphics on the wall,” Bode explained.
The hallways meander from town to country to woodlands. Every wall, door, nook and cranny is covered in art that can take a child’s imagination to places unknown, and it also has teaching purposes. A bakery scene, for example, can be used to teach concepts of small, medium and large.
Bode and construction planners wanted the central section of the facility to be a town-like setting, and animals were placed in two categories. One set of creatures were from the farm and another were those found in the woodlands and countryside, but all of it contained elements native to the region.
“I always liked doing artwork and illustration,” Bode said. “It’s a little more fun when you can do more artistic works.”
Bode said there is another reason why she enjoys doing projects like this.
“Just seeing the kids’ expression is great to me,” she said. “We’re happy with it.
“If parents feel their child is safe and happy they are more likely to stay.”
Beverly Waddell, director of the center, is happy with the artwork both for the attractiveness and the concepts of learning that come with it.
“There is so much that goes into a content-rich environment for children.” she said. “There are things about it that are common to a child’s environment, but others that are not. We had so many ideas in utilizing artwork so it’s more of a recreational summer camp experience.”
Those that use the facility seem appreciative of the facility as well as the new setting. Dr. Diahann Meekins Moore works as a psychiatrist in the Phoebe Behavioral Health Center. She currently has a 6-year-old son, with another child expected to arrive in April.
Having just moved to the area from Chicago without her husband, Moore said she has the utmost confidence in Family Tree.
“It gives me a sense of peace knowing my family is taken care of,” she said. “It’s a beautiful facility. I couldn’t ask for more. It’s very safe and comfortable.”
The facility, which held a ribbon-cutting last week for the expansion, will increase enrollment from 153 to 250 children. The center maintained full operations during the construction project, with children moved into the new section while the older building was being refurbished.
Established in 1993, the center is in existence to provide childhood care and education for the families of hospital employees. They are licensed by Bright From the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning.