New Harris Family Children’s Center Opens
October 11, 2006
Dancing is a much loved part of the curriculum
Children drawing outdoors at the new 8,000-square foot center
The 8,000-square foot facility, almost quadruple the center's former size, was formally dedicated in September.
The center, which provides care for children of Academy faculty and staff as well as the broader town community, can provide full-time care for 54 children. It has cathedral ceilings; dozens of large, low windows; a full, participatory kitchen; an arts and science room, complete with a kid-friendly, adjustable Harkness table; a multipurpose room better known as the Great Room; and a screened porch with a hammock and plenty of comfortable seating. The building is divided in half, with a “home environment” for infants and toddlers on one side, and an academic side for preschoolers and kindergarteners to engage and explore in collaborative arts and science exercises on the other. The center is also home to the Academy’s After-School Program (formerly housed in the Potting Shed behind Phillips Church), which provides activities for 20 K-5 children.
“This state-of-the-art facility plays a tremendous role in what we are able to expose our children to at a very young age: appreciation of the arts and sciences, opportunities for exploration and experimentation, and a close connection to and respect for the environment,” says center's director, Mary Driscoll. “Like the Academy, our goal for our children is to ensure a love of learning and a lifelong commitment to helping others.”
Exeter’s first daycare center opened in 1988, thanks to the support of Principal Kendra Stearns O’Donnell and to the long-term efforts of the Committee to Enhance the Status of Women (CESW), a group of Exeter faculty and staff who recognized that an on-campus daycare center was essential to attracting qualified, professional women.
“We were the only daycare facility around that would take six-week-old babies,” recalls Academy librarian Jacquelyn Thomas, a CESW leader. “In the tiny apartment where we started, we had babies and toddlers. But we outgrew that place very quickly.” In 1992, the Children’s Center relocated to the old print shop on Water Street, but by 2001, that facility was also proving too small to meet the needs of the Academy community.
The man behind the Harris Family Children’s Center is trustee president Chuck Harris ’69, who first became aware of the need for a new childcare center when he joined the Academy Life Task Force. “We were very fortunate to have already an outstanding staff providing excellent care and education, but the old facility was inadequate in terms of size and functionality,” Harris says. He saw the project as “central” to the Academy’s vision of attracting the finest faculty and staff, and decided to lend his support. The center’s name reflects his strong desire to honor his parents. “They made a big sacrifice for me to travel 1,000 miles to Exeter,” says the North Carolina native and former scholarship student. “I owe them a lot and felt naming the center would be a nice way to say something about that.”
As for the completed center, Harris calls it “excellent beyond my imagination. The combination of abundant natural light, the features designed for the developmental needs of the children and the creativity of the staff is fantastic.”
Harris’ mother, brother, wife and son joined him at the center’s dedication on September 8, where the children sang and presented Harris and his family with gifts. Harris brought his guitar and sang to the audience a rendition of James Taylor’s “Sweet Baby James.” “My mom hadn’t been to Exeter since my graduation ceremony in 1969, and she had a wonderful time and was deeply honored,” he says.
