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INUVIK - Five-year-old Jenna Guy is one of a select few children who attend the Inuvik Child Development Centre every weekday. And she loves every minute of it.

"I love it because I can do lots of things there. I really like the picnics and colouring," she said.

Peter Jellema, back, holds a parachute above some Inuvik Child Development Centre children pausing for a break in front of Sir Alexander Mackenzie School on Friday morning. Front row from left, Angelina McDonald, Shaun Campbell, Jade Goose, Christopher White, Bianca Rogers, Petra Jellema, and Tessa Jenks. Back row from left, Jake Jellema, Lucas Prud'homme, Pearl Gillis, Healthy Lifestyles program instructor Jennifer Zwicker, Chloe Van Lankveld, Muria McDonald, Tyler Gordon-Bahr and Jenna Guy. - Andrew Rankin/NNSL photo

Meghan Sweetnam, director of the centre, said there are 50 children on its waiting list.

The centre, which caters to ages two to 10, offers an exhaustive list of educational programs from early start reading activities to Gwich'in language lessons, to its Healthy Lifestyles program, which, with the aid of instructor Jennifer Zwicker, introduces the youngest toddlers to a wide range of activities such as Yoga, Tai Chi, relays, sports as well as an educational component on healthy living.

Jenna's mom Paula Guy is the vice chair of the centre's board, and has another daughter, Shannon, 2, enrolled in the centre. She said she laments the fact there are many children not getting the early education they need.

"When I was doing kindergarten screenings there was sometimes such a difference between kids that have had early childhood programming compared to children who haven't," said the Samuel Hearne Secondary School teacher.

She also represents the centre on the Children First Society board of directors, which includes representatives from both Aboriginal Head Start and Inuvik preschool organizations, who are fundraising for a new $6-million child development centre.

The proposed two-storey centre, which is planned to be built near the site of Sir Alexander Mackenzie School in 2013, will serve children ranging in age from infants to 12-year-olds. Employing qualified early childhood education staff, the facility would offer programs centring on topics such as traditional language, health promotion and nutrition, and would also boast intervention programs that would zero in on children with behavioural or intellectual challenges.

Without such a facility, Guy said Inuvik will have trouble attracting young families. She also said the facility would offer a helping hand to single mothers looking to continue their schooling. Currently there's a severe shortage of child care for kids two years old and under in Inuvik.

Guy said the shortage will only get worse unless residents and government chip in to make the centre's current fundraising drive a success.

"It's too important on so many levels for our entire community not too support this because without it we'll all suffer," she said.