A ribbon cutting was held to celebrate the opening of Preble Mini Minds, an early childhood education center in Eaton. The Preble Mini Minds Board cut the ribbon on the stage that was part of the original Grange Hall, which PMM was constructed around.
EATON — A special ribbon-cutting ceremony held on Wednesday, Sept. 25, celebrated Preble Mini Minds, a new early childhood education center opening in Eaton at 501 Nation Ave.
Karen Moss, Executive Director of the Preble County Chamber of Commerce, welcomed attendees to Thursday’s event. “We’re really thrilled to have this family-oriented early education center in our community, and recognize the positive impact that they’ll have, not just only on the families and the children, but also local employers by helping address the shortage of childcare issues our county,” Moss said.
Mary Bullen, President of Preble Mini Minds board, expressed gratitude for the community’s support and emphasized the center’s mission to address childcare shortages and foster cognitive development in children.
“This has been an act of love,” an emotional Bullen said. “For our community. I think for many years, we’ve thought about how much we love rural Preble County, how we love living here, and the type of life that we want our children to have.”
“It’s a great community, but what we haven’t had is the privilege that a lot of more affluent communities have had, where they have the great places to take their kids and the better things to show them, not that that makes them a better person, but it’s nice to have,” she added. “When I think about all of this, I think about sustainability and what happens when I’m gone, when my grandkids are raising kids in Preble County, so we have worked hard to build a board that will build this facility, and help build our community into a stronger group of people that work together regardless of our politics, because we love each other.”
Christy Reveal, Executive Director for Preble Mini Minds, highlighted the center’s safety features and commitment to early education, aiming to provide a safe and nurturing environment for children.
“Mary, said it all,” Reveal noted. “Thank you all for coming. Thank you for being here tonight and getting us off to a good start. I think this is the first of many things that Mini Minds is going to do. You know, Mini Minds is non-profit, so that means the facility wasn’t for us, it was for the community and all the families here in Preble County. “We’re going to provide a safe and loving environment. But more than that, education, and I mean true cognitive development. The brain develops so much the first five years, it’s crucial that kids make those connections, that they build that capacity, so that someday they are putting together things that we can’t even fathom.
“I’m excited. I’m very blessed and fortunate to have this opportunity,” Reveal, who has worked in Preble County with Head Start since 2013, said. “I feel like my whole entire career has led up to this.”
Justin Sommer, Economic Development Director for the Preble County Development Partnership, discussed the long-term benefits of early childhood education, including improved workforce participation and academic success, and praised the investment in the facility and leadership.
“I’ve been in this role for a little over two years, and one of the first meetings that I had when I came to Preble County was with Mary,” Sommer said. We started talking about what the goals were for the county, what activities you had going on, and the Mini Minds initiative was one of the things that she shared with me, and that’s something that was very easy to get behind. I’ve been a supporter of early childhood education for a long, long time, and know the impacts that it makes in communities. So to be standing in in this building today is pretty incredible, because buildings like this take capital and capacity, so without the partners that you’ve heard from already, the capital that was necessary to turn this building into what it is doesn’t happen often in communities like ours. And then you can build the building, but unless you have the capacity with Christy and her team to provide that instruction, that leadership, that guidance to those students that are going to be occupying this, it really doesn’t matter whether the building’s here or not.
“So those two things don’t often happen, and it’s pretty incredible that we’re standing here today in this structure,” Sommer continued. “From a community standpoint, we know there are long term studies that show investment into early childhood education is the best investment that a community can make. It often doesn’t happen because it takes 20 years to see that pay off, but we know that students who are exposed to early childhood education are more productive, they’re more stable, they’re less likely to commit crime, they’re less likely to be on public assistance. So we know those long term investments pay off. From an economic development standpoint, when I look at our labor force participation numbers, we’re lower than what we should be, partly because we don’t have affordable and available child care, so one parent has to choose to stay home, as opposed to being a part of our workforce. So we think it’s going to have impact there. We know for our school systems, having children that enter kindergarten ready to learn, prepared to learn, it’s going to help them with their academic success throughout their time in education.
“So access to early childhood education is going to be important for our success, for our school system, and one of the things that we’re working on in economic development is workforce attraction. We need more people in our community to fill the openings that we have, and when families decide to locate to a community, if they don’t have access to early childhood education, they’re not going to come here. So having this resource is again setting us up for long term success,” Sommer said. “So Mary, thank you for the investment that you’ve made. Christie, thank you to you and your team for providing your services.”
The ceremony concluded with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Preble Mini Minds will provide childcare for children 6 weeks-12 years old, with integrated education at all levels for kindergarten readiness. There will be before- and after-school programs as well.
For enrollment and other information about Preble Mini Minds, visit www.prebleminiminds.org.
Reach Eddie Mowen Jr. at 937-683-4061 and follow on X @emowenjr.
