By Paige McKay Kubik | Vice President, Development & Communication
Dear Friend,
“If we want to live in a safe, thriving community, we need to give our children a strong foundation from the start.”
Penny believes this with all her heart and soul. Read her story, and you’ll see why.
More than 30 years ago, Penny’s mother brought her two little girls to Sheltering Arms. Their family lived in public housing near the Georgia state capitol. Penny’s mother cleaned houses for a living. She needed child care she could afford, and her precocious toddlers needed to learn.
“While I was safe and learning at Sheltering Arms, my mother worked hard to provide for us,” Penny remembers. “The help my mother got in those early years allowed her to work and save enough to eventually open her own business.”
Penny’s early start at Sheltering Arms paid off. She graduated high school with honors, went to Albany State, and was a retail manager before becoming a stay-at-home mom with baby Nolyn.
“You should be a teacher and make other kids smart like me.”
That’s what Nolyn told his mom after he started school and was quickly placed in the gifted program. Penny heard that her old alma mater, Sheltering Arms, offered training to help teachers become credentialed in early education. She jumped at the chance. Over the next few years, Penny earned her credential, came to work at Sheltering Arms, and with the help of Sheltering Arms returned to college to earn a degree in early education.
But that’s not the end of Penny’s Sheltering Arms story. When Sheltering Arms opened a new center near her old neighborhood, she knew that’s where she needed to teach. The community still struggled with poverty, crime, substance abuse, and lack of opportunity. She had a chance to share her story and to give others hope. “If I can do it,” she tells parents now, “you can do it, too.”
“You can’t let your present dictate your future.”
That’s what Penny tells her students and their parents. “When we opened the new Sheltering Arms school, we saw children and parents who were very angry. To reach them, we showed them a different kind of love.
“It started with the children. With our help, they began using words to express themselves and solve problems. I was so proud when one little boy learned to step away and direct his anger to a pillow, not his friends.
“Parents started changing, too. There was one parent I knew from growing up in the neighborhood. She was often angry and rough with her child. I talked with her, helped her through a crisis, and invited her to come into the classroom and participate in our parent services. Now, she’s so much calmer and happier, and she’s one of our most active parent volunteers.”
Since 1888, almost 50,000 children have started life ready to succeed in metro Atlanta, thanks to Sheltering Arms.
Penny is one of those 50,000…and now her new baby Wesley is, too!
Today Wesley and almost 2,400 other infants, toddlers, and preschoolers attend one of Sheltering Arms’ fifteen early education centers--all with highly trained, compassionate educators like Penny, and all with a broad range of services that build strong families and communities.
Imagine if each of the 2,400 children Sheltering Arms serves today grows up to be a Penny, giving back to make our community a better place for all of us.
With your help, it is happening. 90% of our children are from low-income working families. Your support provides tuition scholarships so parents can afford the good care and education their little ones need and deserve. And you can be assured that your gift is invested in an efficient, effective program:
We are so grateful for all that friends like you helped our children and families accomplish in 2013, and are hopeful as we look to the promise of 2014. Thank you so much.
With appreciation,
Paige
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