The youngsters of the Ann Campbell Early Learning Center at MTSU spent much of Thursday, March 2, happily greeting visitors with gifts intended to expand their minds and bodies.
First, in observance of âRead Across America Day,â the little ones at the North Baird Lane facility listened excitedly to storybooks read by two-time MTSU alumna LaShan Mathews Dixon, a health educator with the Rutherford County Health Department and a former Miss MTSU and Miss Black Tennessee and current National Ms. Unite.
Then, friends from Nissan North America in Smyrna delivered four new âCozy Coupeâ riding toys for the ACE Centerâs playground, which is being revamped into a natural playscape thatâs fully wheelchair-accessible.
âWhat an exciting day! Weâre beyond grateful to people in the community coming to read and bringing us donations,â said center director Christy Davis.
âThe children love to have company here, and the parents love it too, because the more people we have coming in to the center, the more excitement and fun and more new friends and relationships that weâre building in the community.â
MTSUâs ACE Learning Center provides learning environments for children with and without developmental delays from age 13 months to kindergarten, allowing them to play together and learn from each other. Teachers at the center plan activities that help each child develop good communication, social, cognitive and motor skills, and students majoring in early childhood education work with and monitor the children for class credit.
Dixon and her husband, Lamar, have an almost-2-year-old daughter, Londyn, so she easily joked, answered questions, showed off her sparkling pageant crown and shared hugs with the children in the ACE Centerâs Green Room, which serves 13- to 24-month-old toddlers; the Red Room, where 2- and 3-year-olds learn; and the Blue Room, which serves 3- and 4-year-olds. The center teaches 4- to 5-year-olds in its Yellow Room in the Fairview Building across campus.
A farm animals book got a good response from the youngest children, but pulling out âLlama Llama Red Pajamaâ wound them up like little alarm clocks, yelling âHEYYYY!â with the frantic title character, imitating telephones and begging âRead it again, please!â while their fish-filled aquariums burbled in the background.
âI love storytime so much,â Dixon told the kids. âI read to my baby girl all the time, and she acts like yâall do about her books.â
Nissan representatives, working through the companyâs Multicultural Business Synergy Team, contacted Davis to see what items the center might need this spring.
The company, like others in the community, works through the ACE âWishing Treeâ program to bring in napkins, paper towels, wet wipes, paper cups, cleaning supplies and other similar items donated by its employees.
Magen Clayton, an engineer in Nissanâs New Model Trim and Chassis Engineering department, and JaMichael Smith, an inventory control analyst for Nissan Supply Chain Management, returned to North Baird this time with new smiling-faced Little Tikes cars, which are favorites among the centerâs children.
âAbout every couple of months Iâll get a call from someone in the community, asking, âCan we help you?â and of course we say, with open arms, âAbsolutely! And thank you!ââ said Davis. âThere are times when someone will say that they have something for us, or ask whether this is a need, and thereâs times theyâll say, âWill you send me a wish list? What are you needing at the present?ââ
Obviously, with 45 busy children, supplies run out and even well-maintained equipment gets worn, so the ACE Center appreciates donations of all kinds to serve its students.
Individuals and businesses wanting to help can contact the center at [email protected] or 615-898-2458. Financial donations, such as those intended to help fund the playground project, can be made by contacting Lucie Burchfield, development director for MTSUâs College of Education, at 615-898-5032 or .
The ACE Center children conducted their own fundraiser for the playground last fall, creating four special pieces of art for an âart ransomâ event, then inviting the community to their Fairview Building âgalleryâ to view the artwork, enjoy snacks and purchase each piece.
âRight now we have a temporary playground,â Davis said. âThe children call it the ânew playground,â but I canât wait to see their faces when it actually is the new playground, especially since itâll be wheelchair-accessible.
âWeâve had babies in the past, and Iâm know weâll have more in the future, who use wheelchairs, and this will be a great asset for them.â
For more information about the Ann Campbell Early Learning Center and its work, visit http://www.mtsu.edu/acelearningcenter or check its Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/AnnCampbellEarlyLearningCenter.
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