Bono Celebrates Day Care Center
MORENO VALLEY: The facility opened this month and can care for children with special needs.
Laura Thornell of Riverside watches as Rep. Mary Bono, R-Palm Springs, holds Thronell's daughter, Diamonique Canty, 6, at the Jan Peterson Child Day Care Center in Moreno Valley. Bono helped secure a grant for classroom and playground equipment at the center.
Photo: Carrie Rosema/The Press-Enterprise
By Marlowe Churchill/The Press-Enterprise
MORENO VALLEY - Speaking as one working mother to another, Laura Thornell told U.S. Rep. Mary Bono on Friday that she finally has found a day care center where she feels comfortable about leaving her handicapped 6-year-old daughter.
Bono, a mother of two children, helped Carl Rowe of Moreno Valley celebrate the opening of his Jan Peterson Child Day Care Center, for which Bono obtained a $230,000 federal grant.
The center, which opened Aug. 1, is adjacent to the Riverside County Regional Medical Center and is part of a $20 million health-care development for seniors and children on a 9-acre campus.
About 100 civic leaders and supporters came to see the congresswoman and tour the facility.
Bono, a Palm Springs Republican who is running for another term in November, scheduled three appearances in Moreno Valley and Perris on Friday and today.
She said Friday that she wanted to tour the day-care facility to see how the federal funds were spent. There is a tremendous need nationwide for more day care centers, particularly those that can provide specialized care for handicapped youngsters or children with mild illnesses, Bono said.
Day care is of utmost importance to working moms, but federal funds should be used only to help such centers get going, Bono said.
"Why would any working mother want the federal bureaucracy to care for their children?" Bono asked. "That's why it's important for the local communities to step in and help centers like these get going."
For Thornell, finding day care for her daughter Diamonique Canty, who is legally blind and has scoliosis, has been an issue for years.
"Before this, I've had to use a private nanny," said Thornell, a Riverside resident who works as a health-care professional near the hospital.
Diamonique will start Sept. 6 at the center, which can care for 36 children with special needs. The nonprofit facility, which is open from 6:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., can care for 120 children per shift or 240 per day. Mothers pay from $105 to $155 per week for the care, which includes meals.
Rowe, a pharmacist, educator and consultant, said the day care center has been a 15-year dream and was named after Inland day care specialist Jan Peterson because of her help in designing the program and facility.
Rowe, who has a 3-month-old daughter, said he opened the center to make it possible for parents like himself to feel secure in leaving their children.
He credited Bono's help with providing computers and furnishings, as well as a special security system that will protect the children and staff. The facility has six classrooms and eight teachers, and it is equipped with a special video system that allows the director to monitor each room.
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