An open house for the Mathews YMCA Preschool, now enrolling students, was held over four days this week, from Monday through Thursday, Aug. 11-14, in advance of the school’s opening day on Monday, Aug. 25.
It is located in space attached to the Westville Baptist Church on Main Street in Mathews.
Visitors got a look at the school’s colorful, cheerful spaces—a nature-themed reading room with bookshelves and plush seats that look like wood stumps, an enrichment room filled with art supplies and interactive play stations, and a classroom with shelves loaded with books and educational toys and a wall of interactive play stations inside playhouses. The dining room, with its child-sized dining tables, will double as a quiet room.
Each room has mural-covered walls and pint-sized furniture, creating an environment sure to draw in even the most reluctant child. A large hallway with hanging lights that look like clouds provides space to drop off children and cubbies to store their belongings.
The playground was undergoing ground cover replacement, but will include colorful playground equipment and a large pavilion-covered sandbox.
A project led by members of the Mathews Family YMCA but that was made possible by a whole community of volunteers, the preschool will provide an educational environment for children ages 2-4, said Caitlyn Leavens, associate vice president of the YMCA of the Virginia Peninsula and team leader for the project. She said daily lessons will be based on the STREAMin3 early childhood curriculum that was created by the UVA School of Education in partnership with the Virginia Department of Education.
Instructional time will be 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily under preschool director Nicole Hanson, a Mathews resident with over 15 years’ experience in child care and two years in administration, said Leavens. The school will be open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. for before- and after-school care.
Financial assistance in the form of scholarships and subsidies is available on a sliding scale for those who can’t afford the preschool, said Leavens, with “accessibility and equity at the forefront.”
“We want people to feel that, no matter their circumstances, they have a place here,” she said.
Mathews YMCA Preschool will be the fifth preschool program the YMCA of the Virginia Peninsula has established. The other four are located in Newport News, Williamsburg, Lancaster and Richmond County.
A volunteer effort
YMCA Preschool team volunteer Mary Chapman said that, although Mathews County Public Schools turned down the Y’s request to house the preschool in one of its schools, community members “wouldn’t let it go.”
“Now it’s taken off,” she said, “and it’s been fun to watch it come together.”
Many individuals and community groups provided funding and supplies to help the preschool come to fruition, said Chapman, and a community of volunteers pitched in to perform all the labor, from painting and assembling furniture and toys to cleaning, landscaping and general maintenance.
“The labor and services have all been free or heavily discounted,” said volunteer Susan Murdock. “This is really, truly a community effort.”
Members of the core team that led the effort are team leader Leavens, Mathews YMCA executive director Sarah Rae, Pat Lipinski, Meredith MacDougall, Lynne White, Susan Murdoch, Beth Johnson and Mary Chapman.