FOREST PARK (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Suzanne Logan has owned Kangaroo Korner Child Care Center in Forest Park for 42 years, but she closed down when the pandemic hit. Now, Logan is closing the center for good and selling the property.
“It’s like a grieving process,” she told WBBM. “I’ve kind of now really accepted that this building is going to be sold, and I’m moving forward in my life.”
The doors of Kangaroo Corner have been open in recent days because everything inside is being sold off: Books, lockers, toys, changing tables and more. Vestiges of four decades of childrens’ laughs and learning. Many of them have been scooped up by other daycare centers in the area.
“I had many second-generation families,” Logan said. “Sometimes I’d have five, six families at a time that the children [who] attended here brought their children. They knew me so well — their parents knew me so well — that they could trust me to make sure their children could stay safe.”
Logan said she definitely feels like it's more challenging for parents and caregivers than it was in years’ past.
“The world is very, very different than it was when I first started in this field,” she said. “Being a young parent now, raising kids, there’s so many different things you have to think about and safety things you have to think about. When we first had the building, we didn’t lock the front door … now, it’s like, no one would enroll if you couldn’t lock all the doors.”
Logan, who never had biological children, said running the daycare center left her with a family nonetheless.
“These have been my children,” she said. “I’ve kept in touch with many of the families over the years. I was with children 12 hours a day, every day, for 42 years.”
Listen to our new podcast Looped In: Chicago
Listen to WBBM Newsradio now on Audacy!
Sign up and follow WBBM Newsradio
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram