M&M celebrates 25 years of serving children.
POULSBO — It all began in a little red school house.
It was an old house circa 1890, but it’d been kept up nicely, and was licensed to serve 15 children.
On June 13, 1983, its doors opened and five children and three employees showed up.
What began as a one-year pilot program grew rapidly every two years, said Martha & Mary Children’s Service Administrator Joanna Carlson.
Now, 25 years later and some 14,000 children served, M&M Children’s Services hosts before- and after-school programs, private kindergarten, preschool, Head Start and enrichment classes at locations in Silverdale and Poulsbo.
Today the programs, which employ 100, now serve about 900 children throughout the county.
On June 17, M&M Children’s Services staff, parents and students celebrated the 25th anniversary of the country’s largest children’s services program attached to long-term care. The gathering was at the Poulsbo center, which opened May 1, 1989.
Although 25 years have passed, the memories created still burn brightly for some of the center’s first students.
“I don’t see any changes, it’s still that place away from home that made me happy,” said Athena Hodges, 19, who at 2 weeks old was the first child in the center on Iverson. “These people are like my family. They’re always going to be my family and I’m always going to come back.”
Hodges’ sentiments of family and a home away from home are what make M&M child care unique and an invaluable asset to Kitsap County. And its an invaluable asset that’s still growing beyond its humble roots.
In 2007 1,453 children entered the doors of M&M’s various centers.
“It’s a part of the community that people can count on,” Carlson said. “We can provide resources for parents and families on anything that they need.”
The community at large has Carlson to thank for the children’s services provided by M&M, as she suggested and spearheaded the children’s program.
At 16, Carlson become a M&M employee. She stayed with the establishment throughout her college years.
In 1982, she asked the members of the West Coast Lutheran School and Charity Association board — the board in charge of the organization at the time — if they would like child care for their employees.
The board agreed.
“It was definitely a good decision,” said Cora Caldart, 87, who was president of the board in 1982. “I personally know several working moms that have their kids here whenever they can. It’s probably been the best thing for the children, too.”
Once granted permission, Carlson set her course.
The little red school house almost instantly outgrew its capacity. Therefore, center on Iverson opened with a license to serve 69 children.
But again demand outweighed supply.
“We filled that center up in a matter of a month,” Carlson said. “Within a year I knew it was too small. I went back to the board and asked, ‘Can we make it bigger?’ ” Again, the answer was a yes.
In August 1992 an addition to the child care center opened up with the capacity to serve 103.
M&M was still experiencing growing pains, but this time a helping hand partnership eased the growth.
In 1997 Kitsap Community Resources (KCR) partnered with M&M, and together the two entities secured a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) to provide child care and Head Start for low-income families.
Carlson said most child care providers don’t accept state-assisted children and many who do put a limit on the number. At M&M there’s no limit; all are accepted.
“Without that this community would suffer,” Carlson said. “Families needing state-assisted care would have a hard time finding it.”
M&M serves more than 200 state-assisted children. In November 2003 the KRC/M&M partnership also allowed for an early learning center, head start and WIC program in Silverdale.
In January 2001, M&M took over the North Kitsap School District’s before and after school programs for the districts seven elementary schools. Nowadays that program serves 375 children.
“It’s been a wild ride,” for Carlson, who lives with “magic moments every day.”
She shared one of those moments.
The children in M&M spend time in the health and rehab center with the grandmas and grandpas.
One day the children hosted a birthday party for a grandma with Alzheimer’s.
“A little 4-year-old girl walked in and took one look around and thought it was really stupid,” Carlson recalled. “She asked the teacher, ‘Can this grandma even hear us?’ And before the teacher could even answer a child said, ‘She can hear us in her dreams.’ “And that’s what this program is all about. To me that’s just amazing.”
After 25 years of exponential growth M&M, doesn’t have concrete plans for additions, but the wheels are turning.
“We are looking at Port Orchard and Bainbridge,” Carlson said. “We really want to find a way to provide more opportunities for children and elders to be in the same environment.”
