Uta Squire – Owner
Uta Squire started running a small day home back in 1996, from there she moved onto a licences daycare in 2008. She attended portage college and graduated with her early learning and child care diploma in 2011. Uta also holds has her health care aid certificate, accounting certificate and is an amazing chef. She has won awards for women of influence, business of the year and awarded with special recognition from portage college. Uta is happily married to her husband Lawson Squire, she has two sons Derrick and Jason(Stephanie) and her newest grandson Ben.
Tamara Van Happen – Executive Director
Tamara Van Happen joined Uta in 2008 in the opening of her daycare. She attended Grant MacEwan College and graduated with her Early Learning and Child Care Diploma. She was awarded a scholarship for above top-marks and returned to Happy House Daycare to continue her work in the field. Tamara sits on the Lakeland Early Childhood and Development Coalition, Portage College Early Learning and Child Care and Educational Assistant Program Advisory Committee, The Region 7 Board of Directors and recently spoke on a professional’s panel at a Better Brains Seminar. Tamara is happily married to her husband John Van Happen and has a daughter Briar-Rose. She is a 200 hour certified Yoga Teacher, Infertility advocate and passionate about her work in the child care field.
Stephanie Williams – Happy House Daycare North Director
Stephanie joined the Happy House Daycare Team back in April of 2011. She graduated from Portage College in June of 2013 with her Early Learning and Child Care Diploma. Stephanie became Program Supervisor of the Happy House Daycare Satellite program in 2015 and is excited to become Happy House Daycare Norths Daycare Director. Stephanie is happily married to her husband Jason and has a son Ben. In her spare time, she enjoys, fishing, baseball and being with her family.
Rylee Penner – Happy House Daycare Bonnyville Director
Rylee joined the Happy House Team in December of 2012. She graduated from MacEwan University with honors and a diploma in Child and Youth Care. She has worked with various ages in the south and north centers, and enjoyed her time learning so much about various children. She excitedly settled into her directors’ position in August of 2020. In her free time, she enjoys being outside and doing anything adrenaline related and spending time with her friends, family and dog.
Wendi Will – Assistant Director of Happy House South location
Wendi is originally from the East Coast of Canada which is where she also went to school and received her Early Childhood Education Diploma. She moved to Ontario soon after graduation and worked at several Daycares over the course of 8 year. In 2010 Wendi moved to Cold Lake, AB where she married her High School sweetheart and became the Stepmother of 3 boys and a Mother of her own son. Wendi was lucky enough to stay at home for the first few years of Motherhood and then went back to an office environment but soon realized that she missed the joy that working with children brought her. Wendi joined Happy House Daycare in 2018 working as a Support Staff in one of our many Preschool Rooms. Wendi was promoted to Assistant Director in 2019 and is currently the Acting Director for the next 12 months and she is very excited for the opportunity to contribute to the success of Happy House Daycare.