By TAMMEY WALKER

Special to The Hays Daily News

Christmas is coming. It's too close for some and too far away for others. Have you started making your gift list for family and friends? Are you debating whether you will use last year's decorations or look for something new this year? Hays Area Children's Center can help you with those gift and decoration decisions.

Join us for our annual Christmas Tree Lane and Auction on Nov. 21 at Fox Pavilion. This spirit-filled event will begin at 6 p.m. with a buffet meal, complimentary champagne and silent auction. A live auction will follow at 7 p.m. Many businesses and individuals donate beautifully decorated trees, decorations for your home and gift items. Any tree purchased will be delivered to your home or office Nov. 22 by the HACC elves.

Your contribution to this event will support all services offered at HACC. Those services include community child care, infant/toddler early intervention services, developmental screenings, Healthy Start, and Resource and Referral services. KDHE licensed center care is provided for infants, toddlers, preschoolers and school-age children.

Quality programming combines individual attention with a developmental approach to early child development. The infant/toddler early intervention program provides free comprehensive evaluations and services for infants and toddlers in their home, at their child-care facility or at our center. Personalized learning plans are written to enhance the development of infants and toddlers with special needs, and to assist their families.

Free development screenings are offered through the Hays Interagency Coordinating Council for any child from birth to age 5 in Rush and Ellis counties. The screenings are a way of checking the progress of a child in the areas of speech, language, vision, thinking, personal-social behavior and motor movement.

The Healthy Start Program provides education and support to pregnant women and families with a baby. It is designed to give children a healthy start in life and help parents enjoy parenting. The Northwest Kansas Child Care Resource and Referral Agency assists early childhood educators in running and maintaining quality early childhood settings in an 18-county area. This program also seeks to help parents find and identify quality child care.

For tickets to the auction or more information, contact Tammey Walker at tammey @hacc.info or call (785) 625-3257.

Tammy Walker is community relations coordinator for Hays Area Children's Center