determined parents and friends.

And now the Kids' Venture school in St. George's, which was due to close on October 30, will re-open the following Monday with a community cooperative at the helm.

There is still a long way to go for the Church Folly Lane nursery but campaigner Stacy VanPutten believes the ride will be smoother now the first major hurdle has been overcome.

The group, which only formed in the last few weeks, has persuaded the board of trustees of the building where Kids' Venture was based to let them use the premises.

They have advertised for teachers and are hoping their licence application will go through smoothly.

"We managed to reach an agreement,'' she said. "We are moving forward.

"The next step will be licensing. And when we get the doors open we will start fundraising.'' The nursery was due to close after David Goodwin of Kids' Venture said declining numbers and economic factors were making the operation unviable.

Parents of children at the nursery and those looking for places were concerned that the East End would be left without a school for the two to five-year-olds.

They combined and formed an action committee to run the nursery themselves -- and ever since the offers of help have rolled in.

Mrs. VanPutten revealed that, if the planned use of the Church Folly building had fallen through, they had another offer of premises.

"St. Peter's West Church offered their downstairs section, so we would have been able to put the children somewhere,'' she said.

And she said the Island Press had offered to print a mailshot free of charge to help with the fundraising effort and they were hoping to obtain some nursery equipment from Southside.

She said they were grateful for all the help and hoped that they would get more offers of assistance as the plans evolved.

The parents hope they can run the nursery on a non-profit basis and have already given it a name, The Giving Tree.