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Tea Party with Draper Royalty

In February of 2021, Miss Draper and Miss Sandy visited Canny Kids for a team party with local children. This was part of their community outreach program to help businesses recover from COVID closures. Canny Kids will be forever grateful to Miss Draper and her court for the help they provided us. 

We would like to say a public thank you to the following people:

  • Elle Stoker, Miss Draper 2020
  • Cece Burridge, 1st Attendant
  • Madison Gastelo, 2nd Attendant
  • Madi Brady, Program Chair
  • Troy Walker, Draper Mayor
  • Draper City Council 
  • Draper Community Foundation
Make sure to say hello to the Draper Royalty at the next Draper Days city festival.

Our Letter to the Mayor

July 1, 2021

Mayor Walker,

We wanted to thank you and the Draper City Council for supporting the Draper Royalty program. We have been benefactors of their recent community outreach program and we wanted to make sure you knew what impact they had on our business, Canny Kids. 

My wife Kelsey and I moved from Indiana to Draper 4 years ago with our three young children. We loved the city, our access to nature, and our strong sense of community here. But we had a problem. We struggled to find childcare for our young daughters. One moment stuck out in my mind. My wife wasn’t feeling well and needed to go to the doctor. She ended up staying home because she said she would rather stay sick than go through the hassle of finding a babysitter. 

Afterward, my wife said, “I wish there was someplace I could just drop the kids off for a few hours!” We decided to open Canny Kids, a state-licensed child care center designed for short stays. We offered the flexibility of a babysitter but the quality of a professional daycare. We invested our life savings (and borrowed a little more) to get our baby business off the ground, opening in February of 2019. 

We grew and grew. In our first year, we cared for over 2,000 children from 500 households. We hired 15 instructors, many of them fellow Draper women. But it all stopped in March of 2020! Our revenues dropped to zero for three months. We received PPP grants, EIDL funds, and even $5,000 from Sarah Blakely! But we were still on the verge of collapse. 

Miss Draper and her court reached out just in time to ask if they could help us somehow. In February of 2021, we set up a tea party for any children in the community to come and meet Draper royalty. We had such an amazing day! 25 children came to say hello and share a treat with Elle Stoker, Cece Burbidge, and Madison Gastelo. The response from children and parents was fantastic! 

The real impact came after the tea party ended. Our story got picked up on social media and the Draper Forward. In February, our new customers grew by 6X over January and brought us to profitability for the first time in a year. Today, Canny Kids is back on track. 

We are extremely grateful for the help and support from the Draper Royalty in our moment of need. We hope to continue to be a resource for Draper parents for a long time! 

Sincerely,

Matt & Kelsey Boyce