The play area at Tiny Imaginations, a drop-in facility for young children and their parents, features a range of opportunities for children to interact with each other and for parents to socialize. Shania Morin, who opened the facility with Amanda Trask in August, says following the birth of her own daughter, she did not find many opportunities for socialization for children or their parents in the Winthrop area and opened the business to meet that need. Photo courtesy of Shania Morin

WINTHROP — One of the few children’s play spaces in central Maine opened in downtown Winthrop earlier this month.

Tiny Imaginations LLC, opened its 2,500-square-foot location for children’s play and programming at 117 Main St. on Aug. 6. Co-owners, best friends and Winthrop residents Shania Morin and Amanda Trask created the play space to provide families with children up to age 6 with a place to bring their children and find a sense of community. Morin and Trask are Tiny Imaginations’ only staff members.

Morin said she started thinking about opening the space after she had her daughter in 2022, and had the decisive conversations with Trask about opening the space in April and May of this year. By July, the two had signed the lease and started to renovate the space.

“It kind of fell together pretty quickly,” Morin said.

Morin said she found in raising her own daughter that there weren’t many opportunities available in the Winthrop area, post-pandemic, for socialization for both parents and their children.

She said she wants to help other parents feel supported in raising their children, and that starting Tiny Imaginations was started in the hope that it can make parenting easier for families in the area.

“I feel like there’s definitely a need for parents to bring their children outside the home, for them to interact with other children and for them to be able to socialize with other parents and have that kind of escape — to feel supported through their parenting journey,” Morin said. “To be able to talk to other parents about what they’re going through, or just be like, ‘Hey, how about we meet here every week for a play date?'”

Shania Morin, right, and Amanda Trask created Tiny Imaginations, a drop-in center for children up to age 6 for both children and their parents to find a sense of community. The business opened earlier this month on Main Street in Winthrop. Photo courtesy of Shania Morin

Morin said there are precious few places like hers in central Maine. Tiny Imaginations allows families to bring children to play in an open area with provided toys, books and crafts. A separate space is available for families, with a nursing station and smaller toys for families with infants.

She said Tiny Imaginations also hopes to open a more quiet area in the near future in the Main Street location for children who might be overstimulated by the noise or activity of the main play area.

Tiny Imaginations allows families with children ages 1-6 to purchase a $12 day pass for their first child and $6 for each additional child in that age range. The passes, which allow families to come and go throughout the day, also cost $6 for children ages 6-12 months, and are free for infants up to 6 months old. Memberships will also be available starting in September, allowing families to purchase a monthly subscription to the space instead of paying per visit.

Morin said she hopes to increase programming in the coming months, including holding frequent arts and crafts events, music sessions and monthly movie nights. Tiny Imaginations also reserves Saturday afternoons and Sundays for birthday parties.

Linda Easterbrooks, the executive director of the Winthrop Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce, also runs Winthrop Workspace, which is next door to Tiny Imaginations. She said she has spoken with Morin and Trask often since they started moving into the space, and that the come-and-go nature of Tiny Imaginations’ model will be important to the downtown atmosphere.

“Our beach is not far from here, the grade school is just up the street, so I think it really is a great location for it,” Easterbrooks said. “The library’s right around the corner, the history center is on the other side of the parking lot.”

Tiny Imaginations is open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to noon.