For our very first Kitimat Story, we are featuring Maddison Dos Santos, the manager of Stepping Stones Daycare.
Born and raised in Kitimat, Maddy’s mother is originally from Ontario, while her father’s family were amongst the many Portuguese immigrants who made Kitimat their home in the 1950s and 60s.
Like many of her peers growing up in Kitimat, once Maddy graduated from high school she couldn’t wait to leave, moving to Kelowna to study Early Childhood Education (ECE) at Okanagan College. “I think growing up in a small town like this, it’s kind of conditioned that you hate where you grow up, and you want to get out,” she says.
At first, Maddy enjoyed her new life – Kelowna had a lot more activities on offer than Kitimat, which was exciting at first, she says. But after the initial novelty wore off, she quickly found herself disenchanted with big city life.
“Trying to find a condo was really, really difficult. We did eventually find one, but it cost quite a bit. Driving around and commuting was also really tough, and getting to and from work was about a 30 minute drive. So you’re burning way more gas, just trying to get around. Plus my friends were living across town, and we were all a bit reluctant to make the drive.”
But after graduating from her ECE program and experiencing a big city first-hand, Maddy started to realise how great it actually was back home in Kitimat, she says. “I kind of realised I was alone. I didn’t have any family out there, and all my friends I’d made there were either moving back to where they came from, or moving out to different places, or going back to school somewhere else.”
And so, after 3 years of living in Kelowna, Maddy made the hard decision to pack up her life, come back home to Kitimat and “be with everyone I grew up with and love here.”
Since moving back in 2018, Maddy says she has found a real foundation of home, and that this is something that has changed her life. She met her partner in Kitimat, has bought a house, and now spends a lot more quality time with her parents, sister and nephews than she did when she lived so far away.
But Maddy has also found that moving back to Kitimat has boosted her career in ways she couldn’t have imagined. In May 2023, she took on the role of Manager at Stepping Stones Daycare, which is run by Kitimat Community Development Centre. However, when she was first hired, Stepping Stones was actually closed. “It shut down for a year because of a lack of staff, so as part of my role as Manager I had to recruit new staff,” says Maddy.
After reopening in July 2023 with one classroom, Maddy hired more staff, which enabled her to open another classroom. “The goal is to open a couple more classrooms as well in the next year or so so we can help even more families in the community with child care,” says Maddy.
But staffing is still the biggest challenge right now in Early Childhood Education in Kitimat, she says. “It’s still really hard running the program with the amount of staff that we do. We make it work. But there’s just not enough fully licensed ECEs in town and that’s what we really need right now.”
As the Manager of Stepping Stones, Maddy says her greatest enjoyment comes from working with the children. “I love playing with the kids and talking to them and listening to their stories and planning activities. My teacher at Okanagan College said we’re some of the most important teachers in a child’s life – we are the foundation for all their future learning.”
Maddy has also found fulfilment in working with her colleagues. “I think we have a really great team,” she says. “It’s a lot of fun sharing my experiences with the staff that I’m hiring and kind of mentoring them and guiding them through the field as well.”
But of course, life in Kitimat isn’t just all work. Since moving back to town, Maddy has found herself with more time for her hobbies, including figure skating. “I’ve been skating since I was 4 years old,” says Maddy. “But I quit after high school because I didn’t think I could figure skate as an adult! But you can, and so I restarted in 2022.”
Kitimat’s slower pace of life is also suiting Maddy. “I’m mostly a homebody. I like to sit at home and read and hang out with my friends here, my boyfriend, and cook and whatnot. And I also like to get outside in nature once in a while, and go for walks.”
With the new LNG Canada facility, Maddy says Kitimat’s famously tight-knit community is only getting stronger. “Kitimat is always growing. There’s always new people coming in,” she says. “Everybody knows everybody, or you know somebody who knows everybody.”
And it’s that famously warm spirit that makes people want to live here, Maddy says. “There’s friendly faces everywhere you go, and you’ll always meet new people. And they’re always going to be nice and they’re always going to be welcoming.”
Now, having left but found her way back home, Maddy is firmly in Team Kitimat. “Nothing beats living here,” she says. “And I think everybody I went to school with that says they’re never coming back is a liar!”
For more information about working as an Early Childhood Educator in Kitimat, please visit Work in Kitimat – Childcare.
WRITTEN BY:
Lana Winnichyn
