Early Care, Education, and Youth Recreation in

Durham Lee Madbury New Hampshire

A Non Profit Agency

Late Fall 2012

Our Mission

Growing Places provides quality child care, educational enrichment, and youth recreation programs in a safe and caring environment which supports families in raising responsible, respectful, and resourceful children.

Our Programs

Infant Toddler Program

Pinkham Road, Lee

Pinkham Preschool

Pinkham Road, Lee

Woodside Preschool

Strafford Ave, Durham

Our Time School Age Program-Moharimet Elementary School,

Madbury

Camp Cowabunga/Bridge Camp ~ Durham

and Madbury

www.growingplacesnh.org

603-868-1335

gazette Growing Places

Where Love and

Learning Grow Together

Giving Thanks for our Newly Renovated Space

Growing Places cut the ribbon to its newly renovat-ed and expanded early education center for the new school year! Executive Director, Cellissa Hoyt, Contractor, Jeff Coburn, parent, Amy Papineau and her son Glenn had the honor of cutting the ribbon while families were arriving for the new school year. Our 2000 square foot addition was completed on time and on budget thanks to Jesco Construction! The expansion has given us a new preschool room, an entranceway and parent area, and a solarium for classroom and family use as well as a finished se-cond story. Many energy saving improvements in lighting and insulation were incorporated in to the work and we now have a new fire suppression and alarm system. The upstairs space for teacher cur-riculum planning can also be used for older chil-dren’s programming in the future. The staff at Growing Places spent hours getting the space ready for children,. It was an labor of love and everyone was all smiles on opening day, watch-ing the children play in their new classrooms. Growing Places spent the last two years raising money for this project. Thanks to the support of many individual donations and grants from The Thomas W. Haas fund of the New Hampshire Char-itable Foundation and the Agnes Lindsay Trust. The New Hampshire Community Loan fund also provid-ed a bridge loan to help us complete this project. More than 100 volunteers were instrumental in bringing this project to fruition. Liberty Mutual employees helped us move out for construction. GP parents and staff, UNH students, members of the Rotary Club of Durham Great Bay and commu-nity friends helped us complete all the inside paint-ing. And the Jesco team donated their time for a

few extra days to help us move in. United Way Day of Caring volunteers from Goss International, Westinghouse and the Jesco Construction team helped us with playground work as well. In particular we would like to thank Jeff Coburn and Jesco Construction for their hard work and atten-tion to detail. Children, families and teachers today and for years to come now have the space needed to fully support our mission and our work with children. Growing Places staff and Board members can certainly recommend Jesco Construction to anyone looking for an honest and reputable builder who does outstanding quality work. Please contact Cellissa Hoyt for a tour of our building!

Page 2

Our Newsletter

Sponsors

Scenes from Fall at Woodside

Our early childhood site at Woodside in Durham has had a busy fall. During the first weeks of the new school year the chil-dren were still harvesting and enjoying the cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and peppers from their box gardens…. Picking them, counting them and of course eating them at snack with some

ranch dip or hummus!

During Community Helper week children enjoyed lots of great visitors including the Durham Fire

Department.

Runners raise $14,000

Congratulations to our 20 runners for Growing Places: who raised almost $14,000 through-out the summer and fall for Growing Places’ children’s programs. Our team was at the Newburyport Half Marathon, some members ran the entire half marathon and some partici-

pated as members of relay teams. Runners completed anywhere from 3 to 13 miles .

Abby Aldous Kim Snow Kelley Runk

Marijka Beauchesne Shane Krafton Amy Papineau

Tim Bryant Anita Rozeff Andrew Papineau

Emily Buchan

Sue Chase

Erika Cooper

Melanie DeKoning

Shanyn Grenier

Sarah DeSantis

Katy Lilly

Alyson Mueller

Whitney Swiesz

Karen Quimby

Brittany Madore

Children enjoy a book about fall while out on the playground! There is so much to explore with the change in season including

pumpkins, gourds, pine cones and leaves.

Page 3

Growing Places Staff Portrait: Kate Milne

Growing Places

Board of Directors

Alyson Mueller,

President

Dassie Ramsay,

Vice President

Kathy Watts, Treasurer

Laura Price, Secretary

Lisa Taylor

Madiha Farag

Chris Regan

Katy Lilly

Pam Gill

Agency Advisors:

Matt Goldberg

Bev Shadley

Cellissa Hoyt,

Executive Director

Please direct questions,

comments, or suggestions

to: Cellissa Hoyt

868-1335

growingplacesnh.org

Kate Milne (Preschool Teacher at our early childhood site in Lee) one of our longest run-ning senior staff, celebrates her 25 year anni-versary at Growing Places this fall! With such a long history, Kate has worn many hats at GP and has seen much organizational growth and

transformation.

Kate has a BA from UNH and an early child-hood certificate from the School of Lifelong Learning. Her positions at Growing Places have included teacher, program director, and direc-

tor of personnel and training.

To Kate, returning to the classroom after years of administrative work feels like “coming home.” She enjoys establishing routines with children to help them feel safe and empow-ered. She loves the challenge of thinking on her feet about appropriate and respectful ways to handle the ups and downs of a day in the pre-school. It keeps her creative juices flowing! She feels that observing children engaged in the learning process is one of the most rewarding

aspects of teaching.

How does Kate feel about the new preschool? To her, the building is like a present that she gets to open every day. She feels that it has greatly improved the teaching in her class-room, because she focuses less on managing classroom behaviors, and more on teaching. The classroom space provides teachers with the opportunity to introduce more environ-ments and a wider range of curriculum materi-

als.

Kate’s educational philosophy is in sync with how she lives her life: be as healthy as you can, and be as present as you can. Kate’s commit-

ment to health and physical activity help her be

a better teacher. She can physically keep up with the kids in her class, making her a strong role model of health and wellness for her fami-

lies.

What keeps someone teaching young children for 25 years? Kate says it is the work culture and philosophy of Growing Places. She feels that the values of GP and the staff expectations “work”, and are “more than words on a piece of paper.” In her years at Growing Places Kate has formed strong bonds with children, staff and families. Having a new building with pro-fessional staff areas and plenty of space for children is a great way to celebrate and honor

Kate’s 25 years with us!

In addition to teaching, she enjoys running, cycling, yoga, baking, reading and being with friends and family. Her three effervescent chil-dren keep her busy! Kate feels that her career at Growing Places has been a place that has allowed her to grow personally and profession-ally. She is grateful to have a job that is in keep-ing with her personal philosophy about teach-

ing and life.

Honoring 25 Years Honoring 25 Years Honoring 25 Years at Growing Placesat Growing Placesat Growing Places

We Celebrate Kate!We Celebrate Kate!We Celebrate Kate!

Growing Places Where Love and Learning Grow Together

Early Care, Education, and Youth Recreation

56 Pinkham Road, Lee, NH 03861

603-868-1335

www.growingplacesnh.org

A nonprofit agency

Save The Dates!

• Growing Places Art Show: Thursday, March 7, 6:00-7:30 pm

• Quackfest: Saturday, May 4th, time to be determined

A Time to Give Thanks

It is so easy to get wrapped up in all the holiday hype this time of year. We can help keep the balance by reminding ourselves about all that we are thankful for, our family and friends…. We can pause and focus on all the magic, love and connected-ness that this season is sure to bring as we spend time with loved ones.

Happy Holidays from all of us at Growing Places!