NOMINATED BY JOSH NADEAU, NMDC
Most Mainers are familiar with home based businesses in their communities, and in many cases it is these businesses that provide services that are most needed in smaller towns and rural areas. For Aroostook County, Theresa Dube’s Childcare is one such business, licensed to provide child care for 12 kids in a safe and enriching environment. Since 1993 Theresa has served as a child care resource in an area of the state that is recognized as a child care desert, meaning that her business is especially important in her community.
Having grown up in a large family with nine children, Theresa always had a passion for working with children, and pursued a degree in Elementary Education with a concentration in Early Childhood Education at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, the first person in her family to graduate from college. After graduation, Theresa moved to Caribou with her husband and started her child care business once her daughter was born, both as a way to earn extra money, and to make sure she could pursue her passions while spending time with her young daughter. As a home based business, there was a limit to how much Theresa could grow the business, but she consistently served 8 families up until 2020 and the changes that Covid-19 brought to the child care sector.
After seeing the impact that Covid was having on other child care businesses, Theresa decided to work on a plan to expand her services and serve more families. With microloans from Northern Maine Development Commission, she and her husband started working on upgrades and improvements to the parts of their home used by the business. Once the upgrades were completed, Theresa made a plan to serve younger children who were not yet school-age in addition to her existing school age services. Since Aroostook County is estimated to need 2,000 more child care slots available to meet the need, Theresa’s efforts have been especially important.
Being incredibly community minded, Theresa sees all of the children in her care as part of her family (which is well over 300 since she first launched the business), and works to support their community outside of the business. Whether it’s with the local Girl Scout troop, her church, or organizations supporting the homeless population of Aroostook County, Theresa is always working to make her community a better place to live. For all of her work in her business, and her amazing support of the Aroostook community, the SBA is pleased to name Theresa Dube’s Daycare the 2025 Home Based Business of the Year for Maine.
