Center gets extreme makeover
Volunteers pitch in to improve Family Center’s back yard
Date: July 12, 2009
By: John McCann
DURHAM — A guy named Said Guzman on Saturday was working on a bike, right? And it wasn’t even his bike. Plus he had no intention on riding the thing (it’s a girl’s bike).
Yet 3-year-old Said didn’t seem to have a problem doing what he could to give the Family Center of Northern Durham one of those extreme makeovers. And the kid wasn’t alone.
Workers from a company called Aerial Innovations showed up wielding chain saws to remove some big trees from the Family Center’s back yard that has no grass. But instead of taking the trees all the way down to the ground, those creative cutters carved out chairs and tables from the stumps.
The ribbon cutting on the renovations will be Monday at 1 p.m. at the center at 206 E. Murray Ave. The barren back yard will have a sound garden where kids can make noise and learn at the same time. There’ll be a painting station for them, and a giant outdoor chalkboard.
And the reason Said was working on the bicycle is because there’ll be a bike path for wee ones like him to turn their legs into mighty pistons.
Maria Guzman is Said’s mother. She and volunteer Beth Espitia were “assistants” to the 3-year-old bike mechanic.
The Family Center is about developing children, and it’s about developing the parents of those children. That is, a Spanish-speaking mom can be upstairs in the building learning English while her child is downstairs playing with kids from the preschool, where director Melissa Gibbs creates a melting pot of Hispanic boys and girls mixing it up with the center’s non-Hispanic children.
“We try to be a family resource center,” said Joanna Sutcliffe, both a Family Center parent and board member.
The NC111 Leadership Team from the WorldLegacy chose the Family Center to be the beneficiary of its outreach project. WorldLegacy is an institution aimed at personal development and empowering people to be change agents in their communities and organizations.
Christine Johnson is with the NC111 Leadership Team. To hear her tell it, getting people to donate their time, money and services to fix up the Family Center wasn’t all that complex.
“You just ask,” Johnson said.
Good things can happen when you do that.
“We’re all still a little in shock,” Sutcliffe said about the generous outpouring of at least $10,000 in donations ranging from shrubs to toys to food.
A couple of Guinea pigs named Gracie and Nuezita greet visitors at the Family Center of Northern Durham — well, the critters actually weren’t particularly cordial on Saturday, but they were there in their cage, perhaps just minding their own business.
The animals are there for the Family Center preschool kids to handle, to learn about, to learn from.
Why, Family Center preschool director Melissa Gibbs one time got fired up about ladybugs and turned that zeal into a lesson for the children.
Family Center parent and board member Joanna Sutcliffe said boy and girls who aren’t even in the preschool can get in on educational eruptions like that on Fridays when Gibbs puts together special craft activities. The cost is $5 for a grown-up and a child. If there’s more than one child with the adult, it’s $6.
As well, Spanish-speaking residents around here who need help with their English can get that at the Family Center because of a partnership with the Durham Literacy Center. The neat thing with that is the children of those students in the English classes are allowed to hang out and learn in the preschool while their parents are getting grounded in their second language.
Maria Guzman would bring along her son when she came to the English classes. She’s modest about how good she’s gotten with the new language.
“Just a little bit,” Guzman said.
But Guzman held back nothing when boasting about the opportunity provided by the Family Center
“It’s a lot of benefit,” she said. “We want to know English.”
Reprinted with Permission of The Herald-Sun Durham, North Carolina.
