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In Action > Community Projects & Partners > Gertrude Walden Child Care Center |
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JLMC members pose with GWCCC Executive Director Thelma Washington (second from right) and students at a recent Family Night event. |
Gertrude Walden Child Care Center (GWCCC) provides subsided day care for children ages 1-5. With this project, the Junior League of Martin County is making a direct impact on improving the lives of the most vulnerable and needy people in our community --young children. Our direct support of these projects helps the lives of these children at a time that educators and physicians agree is the most critical in a child's development. The programs and products we have developed with the Center focus on literacy and involve both parents and children. They include the following: Family Nights JLMC volunteers coordinate, staff, provide educational programming, and food for four Gertrude Walden Family Nights per year. Approximately 95 adults and children attend these events. Family night programming includes childcare skills, parenting seminars, bank loan/income tax filing education, and literacy awareness. The programming is a mixture of parent-child activities and child-only activities, allowing for an educational session for the parents. Please click here to see photos from a previous Family Night event. |
Weekly Reader Program JLMC members read to children in their classrooms each week. Gertrude Walden began the year with a new library, thanks to the 2006-2007 Members in Training class. The library has more than 1500 books and is furnished with chairs and pillows. In our newly revised weekly reader program, each volunteer from the JLMC is matched with a child from Gertrude Walden. There is a chart on each classroom on which the children place stickers to show how many books they have read. As an incentive, after reading a certain number of books, the children get to choose prizes out of a "Treasure Chest." Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) Program Several studies have shown that having books at home increases children's proficiency as readers and students. The JLMC solicits donations of books, which it places in tote bags and distributes to Gertrude Walden students for use by their families at home. To learn more about the Center, please visit its website: www.gertrudewalden.org |