Program gets boost from funding

First Steps Primeros Pasos – an early childhood education program located in Georgetown, Del. – on Monday took the opportunity to thank U.S. Sen. Tom Carper for his assistance with $194,800 in appropriations funding to support the construction of a new facility. The new facility will be able to accommodate five times as many children as the current facility.

Trudy Cole, executive director of the 501(c)3 non-profit organization – which provides early childhood education for children ages 2 to 5 in both English and Spanish – said they were beyond words in their gratitude.

“You have no idea what this has done for the children of the community,” said Cole. “Sen. Carper was gracious enough to go to bat for us, and, for that, he will always be a friend to us.”

Jim Perdue of Perdue Farms, another financial supporter, was also in attendance at Monday’s ceremony. Perdue said he was grateful for his employees and was glad to help, as well.

“A lot of the children that go here are children of the folks that work for us,” explained Perdue. He also said they had done something similar at another plant, where they gave land for the construction of an early childhood education center, and, in this case, because they didn’t own the land, gave the value of the land instead.

Carper gathered the children and others in attendance in a round of applause for Perdue.

The new building will cost about $1.1 million, and the organization is still looking to secure about 30 to 45 percent of their financing through grants and donations. Their ultimate goal, explained Peggy Geisler, who works with the center in resource development, is to be mortgage-free.

The new facility will be constructed on Savannah Road in Georgetown. They have plans to start construction this spring or early summer.

When completed, the new permanent facility will be able to serve 80 to 100 children, as compared to the 20 they serve now.

“We are literally turning people away daily,” explained Cole. “And, by turning away, I mean they are going on a waiting list. [Building this building] means we are finally able to start making a larger home,” she said, adding that the goal is to be able to serve “all the children in the community that need our help.”

Carper, a former Delaware governor, gave credit for his then-Secretary of Education Peg Bradley, for drilling into him the importance of getting kids while they are young, before they even enter school, and the long-term benefits that they can take with them throughout their educational career and beyond.

He also spoke of a debate he was having in the Senate about Head Start, another early childhood educational program, and he said he had cited the statistic that children with early childhood education can have 25,000 more words in their vocabulary than their peers, and noted he had been corrected on that statistic, that it was “more like 50,000.”

In addition to the early technical education, the children at Primeros Pasos experience both a culturally diverse and linguistically diverse population.

“Many families have incomes below the poverty level – earning $7,400 to $24,000 per year – but this is often above the income restrictions for Head Start, making access to good childcare services impossible, if indeed they are available,” according to their Web site, at firststepsde.org (Primeros Pasos means “First Steps” in English). “Surveys indicate that local childcare facilities are full and have waiting lists, and even the best ones don’t have bilingual staff or culturally sensitive programming.”

“The importance of early childhood education is seen in those that start off behind, fall further behind in too many instances,” added Carper. “I believe in what you are doing here.”

He added that he was pleased to have had a part in it, as a personal supporter, as well as a member of the congressional delegation, along with U.S. Rep. Mike Castle, Sen. Ted Kauffman and former Sen. and current U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.

“I believe you are doing the Lord’s work here,” Carper said. “It’s incredibly important work, and I am honored to be your partner.”

Georgetown Mayor Eddie Lambert was also in attendance at Monday’s event, as were several of the center’s board members.

For more information on First Steps Primeros Pasos, visit their Web site at www.firststepsde.com.