JUSTIN COOK The Roanoke Times

Austin Blaylock, 7, Kara Hayes, who is the executive director of the Radford Child Care Center, and Beverly Hicks, 8, prepare for snack time. Hayes has been with the center for 16 years.

RADFORD -- Born more than half a century ago as a community project, the Radford Child Care Center is turning to the community for help -- about $10,000 worth of help by Friday to meet a backlog of bills.

"I don't want to put a panic out there," said Noel Slone, a member of the board that oversees the nonprofit child care center his son and daughter attend.

"We need the help. We want to keep the thing open. If we don't get support from the public, we're not going to be able to keep it open."

The center is suffering from a toxic version of trickle-down economics.

Layoffs in the community have meant fewer families can afford to pay their bills to the center. Nearly half the children enrolled last spring aren't there anymore -- enrollment has fallen from about 110 to fewer than 70. Some of their parents still owe tuition payments -- about $8,000 worth.

An increase in the federally mandated minimum wage meant higher pay for employees and higher costs for the center -- its 14 employees account for about 68 percent of the center's budget. Like everyone else, the center is paying more for fuel and electricity and food.

On top of all that, the credit crunch has put a squeeze on the center.

"We've had a tough year," Slone said. "I think a lot of people have."

According to its 990, a form nonprofits are required to file with the IRS, things were tough before this year.

In 2006, the organization took in $2,154 more than it spent. The next year, the center took in $619 less than the $395,000 it spent. The center also took out a $32,000 loan from one of its officers.

The center built its present home in 1970 and expanded it in 1990. There was $120,423 left on the mortgage in 2006. In addition to the $10,000 it needs to cover old debts, the center hopes to raise $5,000 for maintenance on that building.

Radford Child Care Center began in 1956 as Kiddie Korner Kollege, a nonprofit nursery school for more than 50 children. Meant to serve an increasing number of working mothers, it was sponsored by the local chamber of commerce and funded, largely, by the community and civic organizations.

"Lately, we've been having to rely on tuition," said Kara Hayes, the center's executive director. "I think we're going to have to rely on more than that now."

Hayes has been with the center for 16 years. Some of the staff has been there much longer. Some of the children at the center are the second generation of their family to go there.

"To us, they're a little like family," said Melissa Blaylock, who has two children at the center. "It's just a wonderful place. My kids just love the teachers."

Blaylock says she drives a lot in her job -- about 1,000 miles a week -- so she's glad to get the center's daily reports about how things went for her children. And she's very happy with the staff.

"They're just awesome," Blaylock said. "They really are. They're great people."

Mandy Fullmer, whose daughter is in the center's preschool class, called the center "an extension of my own family."

"This center means me not having to worry the day away while I work to support my daughter and myself," Fullmer said.

The center is the only state-licensed facility of its kind in Radford. And people outside its extended family appreciate the center's value to the community.

"It's a support to our local business and industry," said city Councilman Bob Nicholson.

Working parents are happier and more productive when they have reliable, high-quality child care, he said. And that leads to a better quality of life across the community.

When Slone contacted Nicholson about the situation, he counseled that the center go public with its needs.

There's not much hope that the city will provide any direct aid, Nicholson said, but local officials do appreciate how much the center adds to the community. The community should come to the center's aid, Nicholson said.

"We need to do, as a community, what we can do," he said.

The center is doing more than asking for the community's help.

The board called in Kristi Snyder, administrator of Rainbow Riders Childcare Center in Blacksburg, to help design a plan to fix the center's problems.

"She came in and said this thing can work," Slone said.

The center is already bringing in more each month than it's spending, according to Slone, but there's that backlog of bills to deal with.

Many of the changes and improvements Snyder suggested have more to do with marketing than with the program itself. The staff is trained and the parents who take advantage of the service seem pleased, but the center is tucked into the end of 13th Street, beside McHarg Elementary School.

There's not even a sign to announce that the brick building with a fenced-in playground is the Radford Child Care Center.

Despite its anonymity, parents see the center as boon for themselves, their children and the local economy.

"We're not looking for profit," Slone said. "We're looking to serve the community."