Our Story

Maggie's Place is founded on the love for childhood that Sheryl Gittings and Dan Randall found in common when they met in an Art for Early Childhood Development class in college in 1995. Not long after, 'Mr. Dan' and 'Ms. Sheryl' worked as preschool teachers for Children's World, Mary Lane, in Escondido, CA. 

Marrying in 1997 and welcoming their daughter Margaret shortly thereafter, Dan and Sheryl worked for the next two decades in Child Development; Sheryl as an Area Manager for major childcare corporations, including a partnership with Stanford University, and Dan as an entrepreneur with WizKids, a computer enrichment company.

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As they raised their daughter, they applied what they learned as childcare professionals, fostering a love for learning, encouraging an abundance of reading, showing positive support for their daughter's every effort, and always cherishing the times they enjoyed together as a family.

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Hoping one day to open a center or program of their own where they could create child-first policies, provide a variety of enrichment opportunities, putting the needs of children ahead of profits, and treating each child in their care with the respect and support they would give their own daughter, Dan and Sheryl made a business plan in 2006 for an after-school enrichment and tutoring program. That plan was filed away for nearly a decade. 

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In 2016, Dan and Sheryl got that chance when Maggie went off to ASU to study Anthropology. As empty nesters, Dan and Sheryl built their vision, first with Maggie's Place Enrichment Center in downtown Idaho Falls in 2016, then Maggie's Place OnSite, After-school Childcare Programs in 2017, then Maggie's Place Tutoring Centers in Idaho Falls and Pocatello in 2018.

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To date, Maggie's Place has helped countless students with their academics, provided safe and affordable after-school childcare, and boosted the self confidence of the students in our community. We have given back over $7.000 to our communities through our school revenue share programs.  Best of all, we have seen the joys in children's' faces as they reach new accomplishments, be that through learning new skills in computer coding, earning a new taekwondo belt, making a new friend, achieving a reading goal, increasing an ACT score, or joyfully opening an acceptance letter from their preferred college. 

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Winner of the Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce, Businesses of Distinction Awards, Small Business of the Year 2018, Maggie's Place is The Smart Choice for After-School, a Tutoring Center that is Helping our Students Reach New Levels of Academic Success, and a business run by two parents who share the goal of enriching the academic, social, and intellectual development of the children in our community, just as they would want for their own child.