FAIRMONT–The Early Childhood Initiative (ECI) has been working on partnering with other like-minded organizations in Fairmont and the surrounding area to offer programming to families with young children.

As a result, some collaborative events between organizations have taken place and there will likely be more in the future

ECI Chair and Fairmont Elementary co-principal, Michelle Rosen, had said the idea started because there were all these different entities trying to do things throughout the year and different leaders realized that by working together, they could merge their efforts in order to reach more families.

A new piece to these efforts is the hire of Kaitlin Bormann as the new Communications Coordinator. She said she heard about the position because she’s on the parent advisory board for Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE). The board was asked if anyone was interested and Bormann thought it would be a good fit for her.

“It’s a lot of the same things I was looking up for my family anyway. I though I might as well help organize it and share it for other people, too,” Bormann explained.

The biggest thing in her role is making a calendar that can be shared which will include events around the county for children ages birth to five years old and their families.

“It’s a on-stop-shop. It will make things easier and help keep people informed,” Bormann said.

She said so far the position has called for making contact with different organizations and digging around to find out about events.

“The library especially is doing a good job with their story times and stories in the park. They have those in Sherburn, Truman and Trimont just as often as they have them at the Fairmont Library so that’s cool,” Bormann said.

The calendar will also include events and activities hosted by the Red Rock Center for the Arts, The Fairmont Opera House and area Community Education and Recreation activities and programs, like youth sports. The pools in the area are also included as they have upcoming swimming lessons and events.

“As we’re gearing up for summer, it was amazing to see the difference in the calendars between May and June,” Bormann said.

She said she fit May’s events on a one-page calendar, but for June it’s three pages long.

“There’s a lot of really great things happening,” Bormann said.

She said the best way to view the calendar is to like the Facebook page: Fairmont Early Childhood Initiative– ECI. There the monthly calendar will be shared as a JPEG. She said some paper copies have been available at events as well.

“I know for a lot of young families, no matter how many kids they have, it can be isolating and hard to know what’s happening in a community. As you make connections with other families or organizations and resources out there, it helps the parents with the relationship piece and for the kids as they’re developing, they can experience different things socially which is great,” Bormann said.