An army of people showed up last Saturday to help ACAP Child and Family Services move from its long established home in Les Gove Park to new digs in White River Presbyterian Church.

After a long period of uncertainty ushered in by the city’s need for the ACAP site for a new community center and the organization’s urgent need for a new home, the church’s open door assured everybody things would go on.

But by Wednesday morning, 39-year-old ACAP suddenly, unexpectedly, appeared to have reached the end of its long road.

The state fire marshall inspected the wing of the church that was to be ACAP’s new home. And while the church has used the rooms for Sunday school, the more intensive licensed daycare demanded a sprinkler system, and there was none. The fire marshall refused to allow it to open to kids without one. And the state daycare licenser said no.

“We’re done,” ACAP Executive Director Largo Wales said simply Wednesday.

Wales said ACAP has the money to install the sprinkler system, but it would not be able to weather being out of operation for the month and a half it would take to make it happen. Vital contracts, including the one with Head Start, might be cancelled, but that is still up in the air.

“All day long I have tried to get somebody to reconsider here, reconsider there,” Wales said. “Well, the two powers that be, the state fire marshall and the licenser, said, ‘No way.’ Everyone in the city has been wonderful, all our parents have been wonderful, but the state said no.”

The news hit parents, teachers and supporters hard.

“It’s a very sad day for us,” said ACAP board member Connie Dove, her eyes bright with tears. “We have been around for 39 years, and we have to close. And there’s a real need for what we have to offer in this community.”

Vickie Cooper, a teacher with ACAP for six years, was hopeful that something could be done.

“We really love our families, and there is such a relationship here,” Cooper said. “We want to serve Auburn’s future children, and we want to have them in a safe and healthy environment, and we know we can provide that. We are not ready to give it up. If we were, we would have just chucked it all months ago. If there is a will and a way, we just want to continue our mission here.

“I have been a teacher with ACAP for six years, and I have loved every minute of it,” Cooper added.

Parents were stunned.

Sonja Roland’s 2-year-old granddaughter, Keilah, has been with ACAP since she was 3 months old.

“This has been hard for all of us,” Roland said. “This is Keilah’s classroom, Vickie is her teacher, and obviously Keilah wants to be back here. So it’s pretty disheartening. I am fortunate in that I can find something temporarily, but I don’t want to place her anywhere else. She doesn’t do well with change. It’s very tough. But we’re not going to let it go without a fight.”

Roland wondered if the city could have pushed the move date back a bit.

“I can’t see construction (on the community center) starting by the end of the year. Given a couple more weeks, it could have worked out fine. The fire marshall could have walked through and known this beforehand,” Roland said.

“We can’t afford to lose all of our kids and lose all of our staff and make those infrastructure improvements and fire the place up again,” Wales said. “The teachers are saying they ain’t going anywhere, because they have always worked here. Parents have come in and said, ‘We’ll find temporary licensed daycare, and we’ll come back.”

Wales planned to meet with parents.

“They are the ones that moved ACAP in less than 12 hours when I put it at their feet three weeks ago. I’ll put this at their feet, too. What they say will be shared with the board that is meeting Thursday at 11 a.m. I’ve got a call into Head Start saying ‘Head Start, if we are out of existence for a month, can we still have a contract with you?’ They said they would get back to us at 11 a.m. Thursday,” Wales said.

“Based on the optimism from teachers and parents, the board is reconvening to work out anything we can do to make this happen,” said board president Martha Hoss.

“We’re exhausted,” said Dove. “People started helping us move Friday at 7:30 a.m. They worked into the night. I left here about 9 p.m., and people were still moving stuff in. Everybody was here Saturday morning at 6:30 a.m. Being on the board you get to know the people here and the clientele. The move this past weekend was like a love fest.”