Robert E. Simon Children’s Center to Get a New Home

After 25 years in on Cameron Glen Drive, the Robert E. Simon Jr. Children’s Center is getting a new home.

The child care center named for Reston founder Robert E. Simon Jr. is moving in June to a new location on Sunrise Valley Drive, in the same complex that houses Reston Association and the Wednesday Smartmarket Farmers Market.

The center is moving because the building in which it stands, owned by Inova, is part of the land slated to become Town Center North, a park, recreation center and other community space off of Fountain Drive near Baron Cameron Avenue. Cameron Glen Care Center, a nursing home that shared the building with the child care center, moved to Potomac Falls in 2014.

Like any move to a new home, there will be a need to furnish and supply a new space, said Raquel Witkin, a board member for the child care center. The nonprofit center is in the midst of a relocation capital campaign to raise $100,000 for items such as a new playground and new cribs for an infant room, she said. Also on the list: a rubberized playground surface ($33,000), kitchen appliances ($6,000) and a privacy fence ($7,000).

“Sometimes people want to know where their money is going,” said Witkin, whose preschooler attends the Simon center. “We’re reaching out to the community, to alumni and to people who want to know we will continue to offer great child care in Reston.”

Simon, who turns 101 on Friday, will be at the new center’s ribbon cutting, scheduled for July.

For more information and to donate, click on this the 2015 Simon Center Packet.

Photo: Building at 1800 Cameron Glen will no longer house child care center/file photo