2023: A Banner Year for the Lenape Early Learning Center

By Gina Berry

As the end of the year rapidly approaches, we spend a lot of time reflecting on the year that was and dreaming of the year to come. As a new program, being only two years old, we have had a unique perspective when it comes to designing our program in a way that would be something that the Delaware Tribe of Indians could see and proclaim with pride, “That’s ours! Look at that!” When I think back to when I came on board with the tribe in 2021, a specific day comes to mind. Several members of our support staff team along with tribal leadership had been meeting all morning discussing various stages of planning and what we hoped to accomplish. It was at lunch that day, that we found ourselves in conversation with Chief Kills Crow about his vision for the center. He gave us some sound advice that we have carried with us the past two years. He said, and I’m loosely quoting him here, “Lets serve our people—I mean really, truly serve them.” There is something so simple in that message, but I know I have referred to it many times over the past couple of years.

So that is what we’ve tried to do, as often as we can, as far as we can, with whatever we can, and people are starting to take notice. Lenape Early Learning Center was voted 2nd Best Child Care in Bartlesville this year, being narrowly passed by Tri-County Tech’s Learning Lab, a teaching childcare center- if you have to take second place that’s not a bad place to land. We currently serve 38 families and 51 children, with 84% of our students being Native, 34% Delaware children and 80% of them using childcare subsidies.

How have we served them throughout the year:

We held a week-long celebration of reading and Dr Seuss’ birthday! Each day we hosted a mystery guest reader to read with the kids along with a coordinating activity.

Each family went home with a wellness kit to help with those pesky wintertime illnesses. Kits included a thermometer, illness supplies, cleaning supplies, and a first aid kit.

During Week of the Young Child, we hosted a family picnic! Each child invited their family to come and celebrate with them. We were able to bless each family with a brand-new high-quality car seat! Professional Car Seat Installation Technicians were available to make sure we got those seats installed correctly.

During Teacher Appreciation Week we hosted a whole slew of events to celebrate our amazing staff! There were flowers, gifts, food, and treats all week! The entire tribal complex took part in celebrating LELC staff!

We co-hosted a health fair with our friends in Title VI- Smokey the Bear, the Tooth Fairy, and several other key figures were in attendance. We had such a good time learning about all the services available and using healthy habits!

We participated in Tribe-wide Trick or Treating on Halloween and hosted a pumpkin patch for all of our families.

Each family at the center received a whole basket of goodies for Thanksgiving to cook a turkey dinner for the entire family. The basket included recipes and the teachers wrote notes to each child describing why they were thankful for that child. Our goal was to promote engagement and learning at home, while providing some support during a stressful time.

Santa and Mrs. Claus visited the center! Each child had time to visit with them and left with 3 gifts and a book!

We hosted family engagement activities for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and Grandparent’s Day.

Dental supplies and learning materials are sent home throughout the year to encourage healthy habits.

Each child receives annual hearing and vision screenings at no cost to the family. We can now do those screenings in-house with the purchase of new screening equipment!

Developmental screenings happen at least twice per year for each child.

As you can see, we’ve had a very busy year! In addition to our program success, we’ve had three teachers complete their Child Development Associate (CDA), two complete Associate level degrees, and we currently have six (!!) teachers working to finish degree plans!
Life is good at LELC, we’re learning and growing! We are very much looking forward to another year of serving our people- the best way we know how… really, truly serving them.
Wanishi for a wonderful year!

From the January 2024 issue of the Delaware Indian News. For more from this issue, as well as a full archive of past issues, click here.

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