Many very important adults attended Thursday’s groundbreaking for an $8 million renovation of a downtown Colorado Springs building that’s in sight of the Weidner Field soccer stadium and in the midst of a future residential development.

But it was the tykes the new Alice Bemis Taylor Center for Early Education will serve when it opens next March at 415 Sahwatch St. who commanded all eyes, ears and cellphones to focus on them.

After seven speakers talked about how Early Connections Learning Centers’ longtime vision for expansion was coming to fruition with help from supporters, a gaggle of youngsters marched down the center aisle and onto a large pile of dirt.

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Wearing pint-sized yellow hard hats and construction vests, the excited preschoolers picked up small plastic shovels and began digging, climbing up, sliding down and giggling.

“Too cute!” several of the 100 attendees said while filming the children’s portion of the ceremonial event to mark the onset of the remodeling project.

The kids’ involvement served as a “touching reminder of the reason behind this bold step forward,” said Liz Denson, president and CEO of Early Connections Learning Centers.

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“One of the things that’s really interesting about child care is it’s an economic imperative — not having access affects our workforce — so it’s an issue that matters to everyone because it supports our entire economy,” she said.

The 11,337-square-foot office building that opened in 1984 is being nearly gutted and reconfigured into classrooms for kids. The lower level is becoming a professional development center for training a new workforce in the early childhood education field.

The property meets all the needs of a child care facility, including having outdoor space for playgrounds and ground-level egress for toddlers, Denson said.

The center will accommodate 140 children, which will include 70 new slots for children ages 6 weeks to 5 years old — 30 of which will be reserved for infants and toddlers. Denson said those are the most in-demand spaces needed. Kids who are currently attending day care and preschool at a location west of The Antlers also will move next spring to the new center. 

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“This will change lives in our community for generations,” Denson said. “Every child deserves the best possible start and every opportunity to thrive.”

Two speakers had personal ties to the deep roots of Early Connections Learning Centers. The organization was founded in 1897 as the Colorado Springs Day Nursery by 14 women led by philanthropist Alice Bemis Taylor, to provide child care for working mothers.

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R. Thayer Tutt Jr., vice chairman and chief investment officer of El Pomar Foundation, which has awarded Early Connections 137 grants since its founding in 1937, said his grandmother was friends with Taylor and joined in her effort. She passed on the interest to his mother, Louise, who enrolled Tutt in the program when he was a young boy.

“I am an alum of the preschool,” he said proudly.

Tutt’s wife, Melani, is now involved with the organization.

Two children of Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade and his wife, Abbey, attended and graduated from one of the five Early Connections’ centers in town.

The love, caring and learning his children received laid the foundation for their character and confidence, and helped shape their lives, Mobolade told the crowd.

“This is more than a construction project; it is an investment in our children and the future,” he said.

Statistics show El Paso County has 47,000 children under age 5 — the most in the state, according to Mobolade, but the county has an estimated shortage of 17,000 child care slots for that age group.

“Mothers are forced to make a choice between career and family, between income and opportunity,” he said, adding that the new center provides hope for families.

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The city contributed $750,000 from a Community Development Block Grant toward the project, he said, which drew applause.

Early Connections serves about 300 children among its five centers, Denson said, and is working on its sixth project to provide child care and programming at a new affordable housing complex that’s yet to be built.

All centers accept children from low-income households that receive federal and state child care subsidies but also bases all families’ tuition on a sliding-fee basis for affordability, Denson said.

The project ties into Colorado’s goal to be the nation’s best state to raise a family, said Lisa Roy, executive director of the Colorado Department of Early Childhood. Colorado Springs has set that same goal, except under the category of “best city” to raise a family.

“El Paso County is a microcosm of the state,” she said.