Continually reaching for the stars to find new ways of promoting quality early childhood education, event chair Barbie Horton and her committee opted to introduce a dinner component to the annual Starfest fundraiser to benefit Childcare Resources.
The dinner and a luncheon the following day were held at the Quail Valley River Club, and each featured guest speaker and educator Amanda Morgan. Morgan is the creator of ‘Not Just Cute,’ a resource for parents and children developed “because childhood’s not just cute; it’s powerful, it’s priceless and it’s often over much too soon.”
“Like all of you, at Childcare Resources we have had to weather the storm of COVID and all the ebbs and the flows of that, but I think what’s really important to recognize is that we never stopped working,” said executive director Shannon McGuire Bowman.
“We continued to work to serve the children and the families and the teachers here in our community. And now as we were coming on the other side of COVID, I think that it just shines an even brighter light on how important early childhood education is to our community.”
Bowman noted that they hosted a six-hour professional development workshop featuring Morgan that drew 120 early educators from 33 local childcare centers, adding that nearly 2,500 children were impacted last year through such outreach programming.
“We work to support the early learning sector because we know the power of high-quality early education,” said Bowman, adding that brain research is proving that quality early education is a game changer for young children, their families and the community at large.
At the Monday dinner, Morgan moderated a panel discussion with Meredith Egan, United Way of IRC, and Jeff Pickering, Indian River Community Foundation CEO.
Morgan said that her focus is to “promote intentional, whole childcare development and to close the gap that exists between what we know about how children grow and learn, and what we actually do in early childhood environments.”
She has become familiar with other early childhood programs through her research and travels around the country as a speaker.
“And with that background, I can truly say that without a doubt what is happening here is phenomenal. It is special, and it is really something that should become a model for other communities,” said Morgan, stressing that it is the ‘high quality’ aspect that makes the difference.
“Childcare Resources really understands that difference. And they are committed to that high quality program; to attending to the whole child, the whole family, the whole community to really make that difference,” said Morgan.
Egan spoke about the ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constricted, Employed) population, otherwise known as the ‘working poor.’ In Indian River County, ALICE represents 50 percent of our population, some 29,000 households.
“What we’re talking about is people who are above the poverty level but are still not making enough to cover the real cost of living here in Indian River County. No savings, no preparing for the future,” said Egan.
“In a place like Indian River County, that is beautiful and wealthy and abundant with resources, half of the people who live here do not make ends meet. So, if ALICE is struggling, we’re all struggling,” said Egan. “And that is truly the population that Childcare Resources seeks to serve and support.”
Pickering said that having recognized the value of investing in Childcare Resources, the Community Foundation funded its professional development outreach programs, one-on-one coaching and credentialing, which all support local childhood educators.
At the luncheon, Bowman introduced a new Founders Award, to honor and recognize the impact of their most outstanding volunteers.
“The inaugural Founders Award, for their dedicated volunteerism, is going to two ladies whom we refer to as the best-dressed lunch ladies in Indian River County, Sherry Waddell and Claudia McNulty,” said Bowman. “Since 2010 these ladies have helped serve lunch almost every Wednesday afternoon.”
She also recognized the “backup band” lunch ladies – Celeta Arden, Karen Egan and Joyce Parent – who filled in when the others were unavailable.
For more information, visit childcareresourcesir.org.
Photos by Kaila Jones
