August 24, 2006

Community Children’s Center students (left to right) Chloe Thompson, Tyreese Benning, Riley Duncan, Ben Green and Cole Harding worked on party hats for next month’s 60th anniversary of the center’s incorporation.

By Lauren Heaton

Ty had a look of terror as he tore down the hallway of the Community Children’s Center last Friday morning chasing after his grandmother. “I want to hug her,” he cried. “I want to hug her one more time.” Just before he reached the front entrance, Marcia Nowik, one of the center’s head teachers, squatted down and enveloped him in her arms, affirming his sadness saying goodbye. Children’s Center director Marlin Newell stood by for added comfort until Ty felt confident enough to return to his classroom.

The Children’s Center staff had learned just that morning about the family’s schedule change that threw Ty into a panic. But they handled the situation like a well-rehearsed performance, treating Ty as an individual in much the same way Children’s Center teachers have done for the past 60 years.

“That’s what it’s like here,” said Pat White, president of the Children’s Center Board of Trustees. “It’s about teachers who know the only way you can truly care for a chid is to get to know all about them.”

On Saturday, Sept. 30, the center will hold the Diamond Anniversary, a celebration of its incorporation as a nonprofit organization with a party for all the school’s current and former students, staff, parents, board members, donors and supporters. On that day the center will host an open house at the facility on Corry Street from 4-6 p.m., followed by a potluck dinner and dance party with live music from 6 to 11 p.m. at the Bryan Community Center.

The celebration will honor the long-lived success of the Children’s Center as an affordable neighborhood child care program committed to the philosophy that children learn through play, Newell said. For Nowik, the event also celebrates the center’s role in shaping the way the community cherishes its children and the appeal those child-centered values have to people who are considering moving to Yellow Springs.

White, whose children Hue and Ket have attended the Children’s Center, believes that the center teachers go beyond fulfilling their function to provide “day care,” by caring for each child as an individual.

“I learned how to be a parent here,” she said. “I watch, and I go, ‘Oh that’s how you do it!’ ”

The roots of the Children’s Center, according to a history compiled by the center, go as far back as 1926, when Jane Cape, Julia Turner and Lucy Morgan founded a multiracial nursery school on Elm Street that cost $1.75 per week for each student. The Community Nursery School was relocated every couple of years, but its philosophy in 1944, when it was located at Richard and Louise Odiorne’s home, was to relate to children as individuals in their own environment and let them “test their powers.”

There were 50 children enrolled in the school the year before it incorporated as the Yellow Springs Community Nursery School in 1946 and opened at the home of Antioch professor Leland Clark. In 1955 the Vernay Foundation donated money for the land and original part of the current facility. YSI, Inc. and the Yellow Springs Community Foundation provided funds for the rest of the building’s construction in 1988.

In addition to the center’s long history, the Diamond Anniversary will also honor the success of last year’s capital campaign that raised nearly $80,000 to begin restoring the facility’s roof, restrooms and playground areas, according to White. Though during the past five years enrollment at the center dipped to an average low of 55 students, recent numbers show attendance is on the rise again, White said. This summer, attendance at the Children’s Center was in the 80s, and she and Newell expect this year’s average to fall at around 75 children.

Newell attributes part of the increase in enrollment to the Early Learning Initiative, a new collaboration with the Yellow Springs schools, funded by the state, that allows lower-income families to qualify for subsidized child care.

But the center, surrounded by playgrounds and located near downtown adjacent to Glen Helen, is also just a unique place that attracts families, Newell said. The center hosts special days, such as beach day, when the playground becomes a small water park with games and summer music; harvest day, when the children enjoy a bonfire, weaving, button making and corn husking; and wind day, when they romp around the Antioch golf course with kites, streamers and bubbles. Field trips to COSI, the Cincinnati Zoo, the Newport Aquarium, SunWatch Indian Village and the John Bryan Park sleepover always excite the kids as well, Nowik said.

Some people who came to the center as children now choose to send their own children, and sometimes their children’s children, according to Newell. Board member Evan Scott attended the center and now sends his sons there. Corinne (Odiorne) Pelzl attended the center, where she later sent her daughter Helen. And when Helen grew up, she chose to send her daughter Meranda to the center as well.

The nine teachers and four support staff members at the Children’s Center couldn’t operate its programs for children ages 18 months to 6 years without the help of its volunteers, Newell said. “Granny” Joan Brucker reads to every classroom once a week, Joyce Grimes greets families at the front desk, and others, including parents and grandparents, help by answering phones, tidying and accompanying the kids on field trips.

“It’s our whole history and all the people who’ve been a part of this over the years that have made it what it is today,” Newell said. “It’s like a big family, and we want that, we want the children to feel like this is home.”

The staff has contacted 350 members of its family, but they hope that more of the extended family, covering multiple generations, will contact the center with their names and addresses and come for the birthday party next month. Those who would like to help organize, decorate, sign up for the potluck or become a member of the center’s mailing list can contact White at 767-7350 (rdougandpatk@earthlink.net), or Nowik at 767-7236 (diamondanniversary@yahoo.com).

Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com