Award-winning author and columnist Carl Hiaasen was the featured speaker last Thursday evening at the Catch Carl fundraiser to benefit Childcare Resources of Indian River at the organization’s new facility in the OMNI Building off Indian River Boulevard.
The occasion also gave supporters a chance to tour the cheery classrooms and administration areas while learning about the invaluable programs CCR provides to children in their early development years. Programs are offered to preschoolers from 6 weeks to 5 years old whose parents earn too much to qualify for educational assistance yet not enough to afford the high cost of private childcare or preschool. Eligible parents pay 15 percent to 30 percent of the tuition depending on their circumstances.
Roughly 200 guests enjoyed hors d’oeuvres by Elizabeth Kennedy Catering and mingled before the presentation with Hiaasen and wife Fenia.
“I am extremely impressed by the sunny brightness and quality of the classrooms,” said Hiaasen. “These types of facilities didn’t exist when we went to school.”
“If I was leaving one of my children here I would feel completely at ease,” said an equally impressed Fenia Hiaasen. “Any time you drop your children off there is a detachment and you get a knot in your stomach. But here there is definitely an environment that is safe and the class ratios are small so the teachers know your child.”
Board member Susan Blaxill-Deal, who currently serves as general counsel for the Maverick Boat Company, an event sponsor, once worked with the 19th Judicial Circuit as an assistant state attorney and saw juvenile offenders come through the court system multiple times.
“Lots of kids come in the first time and it is usually some mistake they made. But I never saw a child come in a second time that I wasn’t able to look at their circumstances and know why they were there – poor education, bad socioeconomic circumstances or no guidance by the parents. I saw 7- and 8-year-olds that I knew were already lost. To save kids they need early intervention before they enter the system,” stressed Blaxill-Deal.
There are currently 58 children at the new facility, where they hope to eventually accommodate 118 with funding from their Better Beginnings Bright Futures Capital Campaign. There are already 250 children on a wait list.
“There are a lot of studies that show that high quality early education will keep students on the right track to graduate high school, go on to college and stay out of the jail system,” said executive director Shannon Bowman. “The families who come here are looking for that help to make their kids’ lives better.”
The nurturing quality of the CCR school environment often introduces children to a standard of living that might not be available to them at home.
“I think that the environment iterates the perspective of the culture. What I see here is a great reverence for children. They are being told by its spaciousness that they are very important,” said author Nancy Wydra, whose books on American Feng Shui express how our physical environment affects our behavior.
Childcare Resources receives some grant money from the United Way, the Children’s Services Advisory Council and the Indian Community Foundation, but funding assistance from the community is critical to continue providing access to high-quality, affordable childcare for children of working families in Indian River County.
