The month of May will be all about spiders, insects and other creepy crawly creatures for the 4- and 5-year-olds in Julie Fischer's classroom at the Child Development Center of Natrona County.

For the rest of the center, the month of May will be about construction, capital campaigns and the start of a $5.9 million, year-and-a-half-long expansion project.

The Child Development Center (CDC) serves families at three different locations in Casper and provides developmentally appropriate services for children birth to age 5.

Many of the 400 children the CDC serves have developmental delays such as autism and need special care. The CDC offers free early intervention services including occupational, physical and speech therapy for those children who need it.

"Every year we tend to screen more children," said John Starnes, executive director of the program. "The more children you screen, the more you find."

The center will hold a groundbreaking ceremony this morning for the expansion, which will allow it to accommodate about 150 more children.

Room to work and learn

For Allison Sauer, a physical therapist assistant at the center, the expansion means more room.

Right now, she and five other staff members share an office she estimates to be about 8 feet by 25 feet. Toys and physical therapy equipment are falling off shelves in the office because there is not enough storage space in the school.

"There is not a lot of room to do anything," Sauer said. "We are doing therapies down the hallway, wherever we can find a place."

More importantly, Sauer said the expansion will give the children a higher quality therapy. She said it will allow the center to recruit more therapists, provide more storage to order new equipment and keep distractions to a minimum.

With more therapy areas, children will be able to concentrate on their progress, Sauer said. Sometimes she will be in the middle of a therapy session and four other children come into the room for other types of therapy.

There will be room in every classroom for a swing, which can help children with motor skills, speech and a variety of other developmental areas.

Julie Fischer, a classroom educator, said the classrooms are just too small to teach 15 or more children in. She is very excited about the expansion and she said many other teachers and families share her feelings.

"I can't wait to see it finished," Fischer said.

The new building, which will be 25,000 square feet, will be added on to the existing 16,000-square-foot building at the main center location at 2020 E. 12th St.

Lori Kapeles, assistant director, said the expansion allows the center to bring all three locations under one roof including the infant program.

She said the project has been in the works for about five years, but the center will finally go public with its plans and capital campaign today.

The land for the expansion was acquired on a long-term lease from the city of Casper through a financial grant from the McMurry Foundation, but the center still has to raise several million dollars.

The center has already raised a portion of the $5.9 million through the city approval of $1 million from the 1-cent sales tax funds, the help from a $500,000 endowment and the donations of several major philanthropists including Susie and Mick McMurry as well as pledges from staff and board members.

Starnes said he expects the project to be completed by the fall of 2008.

Contact health reporter Allison Rupp at (307) 266-0534 or allison.rupp@casperstartribune.net.