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BETTER BEGINNINGS
PENNY PATTER

by: Bettie Witherspoon

April 7, 2006

Making A Difference
Tomorrow is our big night. We will be honoring a representative selection of those individuals, business/industries, and organizations that have made a difference in our community, our lives, and our world. Honorees of 2006 are Individual - Delores Murphy; Lifetime -Jonathan Craig; Corporate - Customized Benefits Solutions; Organization – St. Anthony’s Roman Catholic Church. Kerrie Peterson-Bussone is the chair and has been doing a lot to make a difference herself. I bet you, my dear readers, have too. I tend to attract readers who care about other people, the community, and the world. In fact, the same is true about Better Beginnings itself. People who enter our doors (including faculty, volunteers, donors, contributors, board members, visitors of all kinds) are invariably kind, caring, generous people. Being at Better Beginnings in such an atmosphere is a joy for me and, apparently for others too. For example, we have some remarkably long term staff members, friends and supporters, community board members, as well as our classroom volunteers. Our young volunteers, Andrew Loss, Holly Hammer and Alex Schwartz, started at Better Beginnings for a limited time, and have stayed on. Similarly, Jerry Turkel and Joan Freeman have volunteered weekly for years. All are dearly loved -and their visits highly anticipated- by our young students. Best of all, they are helping to assure that these boys and girls have the basics they need to reach their full potential.
 
Keeping Time
When we each contribute for the good of the whole, we are like a well-regulated watch. When all the cogs and wheels -with various functions and sizes- work together, we are right on time! But if even the smallest mechanism fails to function properly, we are all out of whack. To further my metaphor, perhaps the reason we have so much “trouble” is that so many of us, for one reason or another, are not functioning at our best -giving our utmost at our special function (gift, talent, skill)- for the benefit of the whole. (By trouble, I mean wars, crime, gangs, bullying, abuse, etc.) Anything we can do to assure that our children and families have the opportunity to fully function enhances the whole community and our future.
 
Making Wishes Come True
Thanks to The First Presbyterian Church of Cranbury who made a large contribution with instructions to apply it to the following items on our wish list: 1) a piece of play yard equipment, 2) a DVD player, and 3) dramatic play costumes. I call that fine-tuning our little gears. "What goes around comes around", and someday these little minds will grow to become our doctors, our teachers, our community members, our dental assistants, maybe even our President, maybe a Mayor, a Councilperson, a Senator, and a Freeholder or two!
 
Sharing the Bounty
This week, foodstuffs of all kinds, including, juice, snacks, cereal, and bread topped our list, donated by Brenda and Albert Werner, Joan Gordon, Jonathan Craig, and Blanca Pulla. These are a big help in stretching our under funded food program. For our little cogs to become strong full-grown wheels, they need good nutrition and we are, as always, grateful for the help Royce Robin donated very useful craft items, assisting in our pursuit of encouraging creativity while enhancing the cognitive, also essential for our little guys to reach their full potential.
 
Additional Items for our Gala Auction
. include Swimming lessons from Peddie Aquatics, products from Shiseido, Sephora, Cuisenaire, and many sports items from Capps Presentations, including baseball cards, autographed items, sporting event tickets, and one of a kind memorabilia.
Comments, Ideas, Suggestions?
If you noticed above that we are seeking volunteers, If you have comments, suggestions, if you have an idea for Penny Pincher or Two Cents Wordth, or if you have other ideas, want to donate, or contribute, or volunteer, please write to us at PO Box 187,
Hightstown, NJ. 08520 or bewith@mail2peace.com, or call 609-448-6226, Luz Nereida Horta, Executive Director. Want to know more about us, visit www.princetonol.com/groups/bbcdc, volunteer webmeister Liston Abbott.

Bettie Witherspoon is a former executive director of Better Beginnings, which has provided affordable child care to the East Windsor/Hightstown area since 1967.


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