Learning center at BC3 bids farewell until fall
One multicolored handmade sign will read “We Wish You Well in Kindergarten!”
Another encourages “Have Fun this Summer!”
Blue, orange, purple, red and yellow balloons will float above 27 gift buckets topped off with bottles of bubbles, boxes of sidewalk chalk and packets of planting seeds.
On Wednesday, four staff members of the Amy Wise Children's Creative Learning Center on Butler County Community College's main campus in Butler Township will wear face masks and gloves as they wave hello — and goodbye — to all the 3- to 5-year-olds they haven't seen since March 11. Staff will host a makeshift drive-through ceremony celebrating the official end of the preschoolers' year.
Parents or guardians and the preschoolers have been invited to attend the ceremony, scheduled from 10 to 11 a.m. in a drop-off circle near the Amy Wise Children's Creative Learning Center. The center has been closed since mid-March with regard to COVID-19.
“It's going to be hard,” said Gina Rajchel, interim director of the center. “I think we really have such a bond with them. We really get close with them. And it's difficult when they graduate and move on. But especially this year, because we never got the closure. We never got to say goodbye. We never had an ending.”
Each child will receive a gift bucket that staff will place in the trunk or hatch of each vehicle.
A crowd of between 150 and 200 attended the year-end ceremony in May 2018.
Eleven of the center's 27 students will enter kindergarten this fall. Those students will receive a diploma, while the other 16 students will get certificates.
Since early April, instructors have used a remote instruction platform to interact daily with students, Rajchel said, adding that many parents especially appreciated a video in which she read “Shubert and Sophie Stay Home.”
“It is a social story about what is going on in the world right now,” Rajchel said, “and why we have to stay home. The parents responded well to that. They said the children loved it.”
The story is about a family that at first enjoyed staying at home, Rajchel said, “and then another week went by and another week went by. The children started getting antsy and the parents started getting upset. The book talks about how to handle your emotions.”
Rajchel fully expects Wednesday to be an emotional day.
“We will be very happy to see them and wish them well wherever the world takes them,” Rajchel said.
Bill Foley is the coordinator of news and media content at Butler County Community College.
