The Child Development Cooperative

Almost Paradise-80s Prom Fundraiser

Date: October 9, 2010

Time: 7pm-11pm

Place: The Co-op, 250 S. Foster (across from BRCC, next to the YMCA)

Details: Parking will be available at the YMCA and behind the Co-op on S. Foster. Event is BYOB, so bring your own. There will be light refreshments available, a silent auction, and of course DANCING! So, look for the lights and get your dress at The Time Warp (mention us and you get 15% off!), tease that hair and join us for the event of the season!

Mark it on your calendars. There will be a professional photographer taking our prom photos,

I'm related to these people!

a bang teasing booth, cheesy erherm, I mean awesome music and a chance to help the Co-op raise money to raise the roof! Please go to the homepage to buy tickets and if you cannot attend (because you aren’t radical enough), please donate to a great cause. Our center is amazing; our roof is not.

Our First Fruit

How appropriate and just down right nice of them to work with our curriculum this month! Our very FIRST organic garden produce has, well…produced! Since we are talking about fruits and veggies/kitchen capers this month, we have been checking our little garden oh so diligently. We have finally been able to test out the fruits (eh, get it?) of our labor. We have two varieties of tomatoes that have sprouted, roma and cherry. I prefer the little ones. But I am tiny, so it makes sense. We have several more growing and turning lovely shades of red and our peppers are coming in nicely as well. Our kale did something crazy and sprouted some tall flower thingie, so if anyone knows about that…

On a similar and even cuter note, our tiny Co-op sprouts have started to attend. Our newest family members are finally sharing their sweet babies with us. Anna Brown, our latest staff addition and teacher in the infant room, (otherwise known as the Caterpillars), is having a ball with our new cutie pie. We are looking forward to the rest of our babies, so we can all have a chance to cuddle. (Anna can be a bit selfish with the snuggles.)

Our First Caterpillar

We truly believe that our community is part of the family that helps to raise our children. One of the great partnerships that we have been cultivating is with BRCC. Starting today, Friday, April 23 we will have students from BRCC’s reading and education department come and read to our kids! The storytime starts around 9:45 today. The students will receive credit for service learning hours when they come to read a Caldecott award winning book to our kids. YAY!

Help make an ADA-accessible walkway for our organic, edible garden a reality. Check out the greenraising website, order something and know your purchase is helping raise funds for our Co-op while raising “green” awareness. There is so much cool stuff. This is not your ordinary cookie dough sale!

Click here to go directly to our affiliate page!

When I was 18, I had my very first job working with kids. I worked at this summer “away” camp and adored it. It was really a pivotal time in my life. But of course, you aren’t reading this to get detailed work history or anything…so the point is this-every week at this camp, we had a goodbye campfire and exchanged what we called “warm fuzzies”. I haven’t really experienced anything like that feeling since. That is, until we had the Co-op’s very first Annual Spring Clean-up Day/Crawfish Boil. Not only did we have donations (thanks Netta!) from the folks who couldn’t make it, but everyone who signed up came and brought reenforcements. We had over 25 volunteer family members and 15+ kids at the event. It was the most amazing cooperative experience I have ever had. (And I like to think of myself as a pretty darn good hippy!)

We had a few goals in mind. 1) Beat the rain; 2) Build relationships between staff, parents, and families; 3) Clean some stuff. The Co-op came up with a few project ideas and brainstormed how to stay as green as possible:

• Landscape the front facade and clean out the flower beds
• Leaf duty (we have the most gorgeous, crazy-insane-amounts-of-leaves-bearing trees ever)
• Build a sustainable solution to our organic edible garden drainage and create an ADA accessible boardwalk
  

  Co-op Older Kids at Work

• Paint a classroom with some lovely neutral earthtones (no-VOC paint of course)
• General center clean-up

I tell you…our famlies were rockstars! I will not ever be able to express how cool it is to not only be around my kid all day, but to bring him up in a place where I feel as though our village is truly coming together and helping to raise him. I know these early years of our kids’ lives go so fast. I am just so proud to be a part of something bigger, and as a business owner, to actually see our tagline in action.

So many Leaves

Hot Dog Break

Eatin' some Crawfish

Childcare, Community, Commitment-by Our Families, for Our Kids!

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