He still needs a few more customers, but Mark Bartlett says he will keep his Vaudreuil-Dorion daycare open indefinitely.

As reported on Monday, Bartlett runs Garderie SPORTPLUS near Hudson, which was in danger of closing because he had only one child enrolled. He gave mother Laura Montreuil notice last week  he was closing, so she could make other arrangements for her son, Caleb Plamondon, 3. Bartlett speculated one of the reasons for such little interest is that parents are reluctant to enorll their children with a man.

But reached on Friday, Bartlett said he has one more child has enrolled on a three-day-per-week basis, and he has gotten phone calls from two other interested parents.

“My wife and I sat down and worked out our budget so I can continue to run the daycare,” he said. “It’s what I want to do, and it makes sense for our family because I’m home for the kids when they return from school.”

Bartlett, a local hockey and ringette coach decided to open a daycare after he lost his job with the paper company Domtar. He invested about $15,000 in facilities for the $35-per-day daycare. He built a playground outside, and an indoor floor hockey rink in his basement as well as a play area in his garage.

Bartlett is spreading the word about his daycare through a new Facebook site, and  Montreuil is also helping to publicize.

 jmagder@montrealgazette.com
Twitter: @OffIslandNews
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