Mariner Square Athletic Club - Experience a Club, Belong to a Community - Serving the Bay Area, Alameda, Oakland

Back in her early days of watching children at Mariner Square, Jane Andren would accompany the kids on "potty runs" from the upstairs corner cardio room that served as the day care area to the first-floor ladies bathroom.

Later, she ran the program from a racquetball court.

"We hardly had anything, but we managed," Andren recalls. "If you have some books and some blocks you can manage. We've come a long way."

So has Andren, who has been working for 25 years at the club in the same capacity – good-naturedly baby-sitting for hundreds of kids during that time while their parents get to perform their workouts nearby. In December, she retired from a nearly 30-year career in food service for the Alameda Schools – She's seen scores of kids come through, then sometimes their children, too.

"Which is interesting," she says. "You have the next generation. It's been a joy. It's absolutely like a family for me. When I was retiring from this job (with the school district), somebody said, 'Are you going to retire from Mariner Square?' and I said, 'No, that's my family.' It's been a good journey. I hope to do it for a little bit longer – I don't know (how long). I think my head will tell me."

The 65-year-old Andren – who has a grown daughter of her own and a 4-year-old granddaughter – works four nights a week, Monday through Thursday from 5-9 p.m. She may take care of anyone spanning in age from 6 weeks old to preteen.

And such variety always keeps it interesting. There's a room where the older kids can do their homework.

"I played a lot of Crazy Eights over the years and Go Fish with the older ones," Andren says of the popular card games. "The younger ones, you keep them out of harm's way and happy. We have really been the first caregivers for a lot of years. People feel comfortable because they're in the building. They can do their thing and even have lunch or take a shower and know their child is being cared for only a few yards away."