On September 25th, PRE4CLE celebrated its 5th anniversary with a Birthday Bash at the Studios at 78th Street with friends, partners, supporters, and preschool providers. The event featured preschool learning centers for grown-ups including a Dramatic Play center with costumes and a photo booth, an Art Center with a collaborative mural, a Literacy Center featuring favorite books to take home to preschoolers, a Blocks Center with magnet tiles, and a Science Center where guests could plant seeds in a pot to take home.

Funds raised from the Birthday Bash will be used to equip high-quality PRE4CLE classrooms with new toys, books, equipment, and other early learning supplies to ensure that teachers have the tools they need to fully implement a high-quality preschool curriculum.  While all PRE4CLE classrooms have the markers of high-quality — such as credentialed teachers, a research-based curriculum, and daily outreach to families — many programs struggle to afford updated classroom supplies.  Funds from the Birthday Bash will allow PRE4CLE to offer this much-needed support to classrooms throughout the city. We are still accepting donations to support vibrant preschool classrooms. Donate Online

During the brief program, PRE4CLE premiered a new video featuring some of the partners, teachers, and parents who have made PRE4CLE a success.

PRE4CLE also honored four people who have been indispensable to its success with the first ever Preschool Champion Awards:

-Eric Gordon, CEO, Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Cleveland Early Childhood Compact Co-Chair: With Marcia Egbert, Eric worked to include access to high-quality preschool in the Cleveland Plan and pulled together stakeholders to create PRE4CLE. Since then, Eric has worked to make sure that, not only is his district doing more for early learning than anywhere else in the state and most school districts in the nation, but also is reaching out across the community to private early learning programs and community partners to ensure that every child in Cleveland can start school ready to learn

-Marica Egbert, Senior Program Officer, The George Gund Foundation, Cleveland Early Childhood Compact Co-Chair: With Eric Gordon, Marcia worked to include access to high-quality preschool in the Cleveland Plan and pulled together stakeholders to create PRE4CLE. Marcia’s incredible, groundbreaking advocacy for young children from before birth through preschool has blazed a path not only in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County but across the country. From preschool to infant mortality to healthcare to criminal justice reform, Marcia is at the forefront of  many of the huge challenges facing our community, forming solutions and leading the charge.

-Kristen Baird Adams, Chief of Communications, PNC Bank, Cleveland Early Childhood Compact Founding Member: As a corporate leader for PNC, Kristen has been leading efforts around early education for more than a decade through PNC’s Grow Up Great program. Early on, Kristen and the team at PNC not only made a significant, multi-year investment in PRE4CLE’s advocacy and communication campaign to families (which they have since renewed), but they also rolled up their sleeves and volunteered to be active partners in making sure our policymakers at the local, state, and federal level were hearing from them and other corporate leaders in Cleveland about the critical importance of early education for our economy and our future workforce, and that PRE4CLE’s message was being amplified in the media.

-Billie Osborne-Fears, Director, Starting Point, Cleveland Early Childhood Compact Founding Member, Lead Agency Director for PRE4CLE: Billie’s career advocacy, local and national leadership, and determination was nothing less than transformational for early education not just in Cleveland, but in the entire nation.  As the founding director of Starting Point, the first resource and referral agency for early learning in Northeast Ohio, Billie was part of creating the concept of quality rating systems for early learning—what today in Ohio is called Step Up To Quality—and launched Ohio’s pilot right here in Cuyahoga County.  Billie also worked with leaders at the state and local level to create a statewide scholarship program for early childhood teachers, a professional development system, to launch and implement Cuyahoga County’s UPK program, to create an early learning referral system for families, and help thousands of programs become quality rated.

Thank to all those who came to celebrate PRE4CLE and those who have supported this important work! High Five to the next five years!

View Event Photos

Thank you to our sponsors:

Five Star

Cleveland Teachers’ Union

The George Gund Foundation

PNC

Four Star

Advocacy and Communication Solutions

Fowler Family Foundation

RPM International, Inc.

 Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP

Tri-C Foundation

Three Star

Cleveland Metropolitan School District

Council for Economic Opportunity in Greater Cleveland

Horizon Education Centers

Medical Mutual

Sherwin Williams

Third Federal Savings and Loan Foundation