White Plains Children’s Center Celebrates 30 Years

The 30th anniversary celebration, hosted by the Board of Directors, is scheduled for Saturday, May 19^th at 10am on the campus of White Plains UMC.

White Plains Children’s Center in Cary offers unique programs, serving children with and without disabilities. It is a non-profit, state-rated, 5-Star program.

Mayor Harold Weinbrecht will greet former parents, students, board members, employees and current families.  Town Council representative Don Frantz and Chair of the Cary Chamber, Tom Huff, will be among those to honor the school’s Founders.

Returning students, college age through elementary school, will conduct the honor ceremony.  Nearly 200 guests are expected.

Event Details

White Plains Children’s Center 30th Anniversary Celebration
Saturday, May 19, 2012
10 AM

White Plains UMC
313 SE Maynard Road
Cary, 27511
Cost: free

Special thanks goes to Garden Supply Company, 1421 Old Apex Road Cary NC  27513.   The management of Garden Supply delivered skilled advice and provided the wonderul foilage.  Thank you.  When you need garden supplies, plants and advice, please visit Garden Supply.

Visit the Parent Association Picture gallery to get a glimpse of the new planters.

There are options such as:  Do it Yourself, Pick Your Pace, and Blended Learning.   The White Plains Children’s Center is described in the “Blended Learning” option.   Here is that text.

Wake County has quite a few schools devoted to children with special needs. White Plains Children’s Center has been educating special needs children for 30 years, but it follows a slightly different model.

As an inclusive day care center and preschool, White Plains classrooms are a mix of roughly half special needs children and half typically developing children. The goal is to foster an environment of understanding and mutual growth, in which children can learn from each other.

“A lot of people think in the early years the focus is on ABCs. But in the first years children learn so much through their play,” said Ruth Miller, the executive director of White Plains. All primary teachers hold the North Carolina Birth-Kindergarten license, and classrooms are structured to provide guided playtime that maximizes learning opportunities for both groups of children.

“My son who was a student at White Plains in its second year of operations,” said Kathleen Carter, chair of the board of directors for White Plains. “He is now a professor and got his PhD at Duke. He will tell you that to this day, because of his experience at a young age, he doesn’t see race, ethnicity, handicap or any other factor. It helps you as a child to be exposed to a diverse population from a young age.”.

White Plains is an agency for the Wake County Public School System. Children who are identified with a disability are entitled to care through the public system at age 3. Typically developing children do not register through the public school system.

Wendy Partin has been appointed Acting Executive Director by the Board of Directors today.  Wendy is a recognized and active member of the WPCC staff in the role of Special Needs Coordinator.  She holds a BS in Special Education from East Carolina and has practiced her professional skills for over 14 years.  “I am excited about this new opportunity and my new role to serve our school families”, Wendy says about her new appointment.   “As a native of Cary, I have a special love and devotion to the people of Cary and the surrounding communities”, Wendy adds. 

Stop in and offer your congratulations to Wendy.

In her honor, we had a going away party.  Here are some photos from that event.

Content of the program at White Plains Children’s Center:  while exploring various instruments, the children will be exposed to a variety of music styles—everything from Classical to Cajun Zydeco.  The instruments that they will get to enjoy throughout the session will include a Chilean Rain Stick, an Accordion, a violin and others that I have collected over the years.  Also using different rhythm instruments, the children will learn about rhythm and tonal patterns. Additionally, we will explore the different music styles through dance, movement stories, finger play, ribbon twirls and scarves.

Goal of the program at White Plains Children’s Center: to introduce the children to different music styles, instruments, rhythms and tonal patterns while initiating a lifelong love of beautiful music

Here are some select photos from one recent session.

Click on the photo to enlarge it.  Click on the enlarged photo to return it to normal size.