PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Supplies and playground equipment were recently stolen from a Gresham preschool and the owner is wondering how she’ll afford to replace everything and still provide holiday bonuses to teachers.
Molly Loveland is upset about the incident but is keeping a positive attitude about all of it while she still wonders who would steal from a daycare, especially around the holidays.
After working five years as a preschool teacher, Loveland decided that she wanted to own her own school, so in 2021, she purchased Little Harvard Learning Center in downtown Gresham.
“It’s super important to me personally to provide a place that’s really safe, that provides really good food for them, that has really a dedicated nurturing environment with really good teachers,” Loveland said.
Loveland tells us she showed up last week on her day off, to do some cleaning, holiday decorating and set up some new playground equipment but instead, she made a frustrating discovery
“I went out to the shed and that’s when I found the shed door ripped off, Loveland said. “Our new playground equipment that we hadn’t yet set up was missing and all of our yard tools, our weed-eater even our shovels and rakes.”
The thief or thieves also stole a carpet shampooer that Loveland says she uses every week to clean the school’s carpets.
“Our little ones spend a lot of time on the carpet so it’s super important to me personally that they’re super clean that’s why I invested in a higher-end carpet cleaner to make sure we’re keeping them as clean as possible.”
Once she replaces the high-priced items she’s worried about being able to purchase Christmas gifts for some of the lower-income families at the school & host a party for all the students and their families. And another expense that’s equally important is bonuses for the teachers.
“It’s going to be harder to do, it’s going to set us back a bit but we’re still going to do it.”
Gresham police tell us even though Loveland filed a police report, there’s not much they can do, because there are no leads to investigate.
This is her message to whoever did this:
“I’m sorry that you’re going through whatever you’re going through that would cause you to steal from anyone. We would like to have our items back, no questions asked, if they can get left back where they were taken from that would be awesome.”
She has security cameras but the camera that would’ve caught the person was also stolen — but those are another thing she’ll have to replace.
GoFundMe for Little Harvard Learning Center
A GoFundMe has been set up to help cover these costs. Find it by clicking the link above.