About Kids Ottawa & Gatineau
Kids Ottawa & Gatineau was started by Nancy Elias and Alison Foley Howard, both mothers raising their children in the National Capital Region. They want to help parents and caregivers across the region by linking them easily with relevant local businesses, retailers and services.
Parents and caregivers will find:
- 1,700+ listings of products, services, activities and programs for kids aged newborn to 16
- Valuable coupons
- An easy to use format
- All the information they need in one place, updated annually
- That Kids Ottawa & Gatineau becomes a trusted and reliable resource that they turn to regularly
Local businesses and service providers will find:
- The perfect place to advertise their products and services to Ottawa families
- Free basic listings
- The opportunity to purchase enhanced listings or place ads
- The opportunity to place coupons
Any questions or thoughts about Kids Ottawa & Gatineau? Just contact us!
A Message from the Authors
Dear Readers,
The National Capital Region is a wonderful place to raise a family. We both have young children and discovering the breadth of activities, programs, services, resources, retailers, and child-friendly places led us to create this directory. Here at last, you will find all in one place, accurate, up-to-date, easy-to-use information listings about everything for kids and families.
This is the first edition of Kids Ottawa and Gatineau: A Complete Directory of Resources for Children. It offers busy parents, grandparents, and caregivers a comprehensive guide to products, services, activities and programs for children and families in Ottawa, Gatineau and the surrounding region. The book will be updated annually with new listings and information. All organizations are included in the book at no charge and with no obligation. If an organization wishes to have a bigger representation in the book than the free listings allow, they may pay to upgrade their listing with a bigger description, place an advertisement in the book, and/or offer a coupon. This in turn gives more value to you, the reader, providing more information, and in the case of coupons, valuable savings.
We do not visit, review or personally endorse the organizations listed in the book, but simply provide the listings and information in an easy-to-use and time-saving directory format. You are advised to conduct your own research as you would when you find a listing or advertisement in another source such as a telephone directory or newspaper. We could not have created and brought to the marketplace this directory without the help, support and faith of a number of groups and individuals. Thank you to those organizations that recognized a great marketing opportunity and threw their trust behind us by upgrading their listings, and placing advertisements in this, our inaugural edition. Thanks also to: the many moms and dads who responded to the concept with 'What a great idea! When and where can I buy it?'; Valentina Reid, our energetic, well-organized, and very talented graphic designer; Mary Foley for her generous help as sales assistant and proofreader; the wonderful caregivers Cyndy, Erin, Gopa, and Saba at Mothercraft, and Julie, Mélissa and Tammy at their respective home daycares, who provide our daughters with a home away from home while we are working; our husbands Detlef Hess and Bob Howard and our extended families for their enduring support; and finally, our daughters Annika, Brietta and Renée for the pure joy and inspiration they bring to us.
Many thanks to you as well. We hope you find Kids Ottawa and Gatineau as useful as we think you will, and we welcome your feedback and questions.
Nancy Elias and Alison Foley Howard