Turning 40, Mount Kisco Child Care Center Has Seen Many Changes

Martha Nierenberg remembers when the first opened in 1971. Back then, the organization started with just a handful of kids and a skeletal staff, located at the United Methodist Church of Mount Kisco. This stands in contrast to having 160 kids today, with its own building.

"I certainly was there at the beginning," she said. Nierenberg helped get the center off the ground and served as treasurer on its board of directors for its first 15 years.

Nierenberg, an Armonk resident, recalls the reason for the center's founding, with a desire to help people with day jobs unable to watch their kids and single mothers.

"We just wanted to help people," she said, describing how she and her husband, Ted Nierenberg, and people from churches were interested.

The center, which initially served 3 and 4-year-old kids, was a success.

Curtis Beusman, a Bedford resident and current board member who has served on multiple occasions over the past 10 years, said it "has really grown tremendously since then."

Just four years after opening, according to Executive Director Dottie Jordan, the center started offering an after-school program for elementary school-aged kids, at Mount Kisco Elementary School. By 1980, amid rising demand for child care at an even younger age - parents were going into the workforce earlier - the center added service for infants to 2-year-olds, which was located at The Lutheran Church of the Resurrection. 

However, with the growth the center found itself being scattered and in 1990 it began the search for a place to call its own.

Jordan, who has been in her job since 1984, remembers that she was "doing a lot of running" when they were tenants in the three spaces. Beusman said that it was hard to manage.

Spending much of the 1990s searching for a permanent place, in the middle part of the decade the center received a donation from the Nierenbergs of a commercial space on Radio Circle Drive that they had used for their business, Dansk, which sold household items. The site was not used, amid logistical challenges that would have involved having tenants, and a disagreement with Board of Trustees members at the time over whether to make the property exempt from property taxes, according to Jordan. Things turned around in the late '90s, when the center received an anonymous donation for its current site, 95 Radio Circle Dr. To this day, Jordan will not disclose who provided the land.

A capital committee was set up to help raise money for building the 20,000-square foot space, which opened in 2002, after the center moved out of its three locations. The Nierenbergs' nearby property was also sold, and proceeds were used to help pay for the construction cost, Jordan said.

The new building is one that was planned for children from the start, down to small details and amenities. Beusman, who was part of the capital committee, noted how features such as varying toilet heights were intended for children of the various age groups that are served. Jordan, while giving a tour of the building, noted that having a laundry room in the facility for the kids' clothes was helpful.

Since its move, the center has also coexisted with My Second Home, which provides a setting for elderly people to come to during the day. The organization rents space from the center, and occupies the a wing of the building. The elderly who come to the group also hang out and interact with the kids, under the JEWEL Program, which includes having the two groups eat together, dance and make art, according to the center's description.

The center's diversity is noted as one of its biggest traits. With a body of kids that is 35 percent minority, mostly blacks and Hispanics, the center "mirrors Mount Kisco's population," Jordan said. Most are from Mount Kisco, with the remainder from nearby communities, including Chappaqua, Armonk, Pleasantville and Katonah.

There is also economic diversity, with half of the families requiring some sort of financial aid to afford the attendance cost (the other half pay the full cost). This aid ranges from scholarships, to county support in addition, according to Jordan. The economic mix has been the case for its history, according to Nierenberg.

The center on Thursday at 7 p.m., at the .

Going forward, the center will continue to raise money for its operations, and a children's fund for financial support for kids in memory of Curtis Beusman's late wife, Jane, who also served as a board member for the center.