Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center Celebrates 50th Anniversary

On a recent summer evening, nearly 200 people gathered under a white tent on the lawn of the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center, dressed like they had just stepped out of 1969.

Their festive attire paid homage to the year the East Hampton institution was founded — and the work it has done in the five decades since — as well as the woman behind its name.

And for five hours, 97-year-old Eleanor Whitmore greeted a constant receiving line of guests — donning tie-dye, bandannas and groovy getups — according to Joan Overlock, director of development for the Center.

“She loved it. She really did love it. She called me afterward, and she said, ‘I was so surprised that so many people turned up,’” Overlock said. “She has been such an important person in this community, primarily for the center, but also for other organizations, as well. We know we wouldn’t be what we are today without Eleanor.”

Postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the party celebrated the center’s 50th anniversary — or, technically, its 52nd — and its commitment to child care and early learning for working families. It is a place rooted in kindness, curiosity and exploration, giving children the tools they need to succeed.

Despite 90 percent of brain development occurring before age 5, just 14 percent of public education dollars are spent on those early years, Overlock pointed out.

“Ten years ago, people really didn’t know much about early childhood education or about how important child care that’s high quality could mean for community,” Executive Director Tim Frazier said. “I think all those things have come together, and this has kind of been like this hidden little gem in the community that Joan and I have tried to say, ‘Look, we need more people to know about us and understand how important we are.’”

When the center began in 1969, it was a Head Start program of the East Hampton Organization for Community Action, before it became the East Hampton Daycare Center in 1976. Seven years later, Whitmore joined the board of directors and shifted the nonprofit’s focus, prompting a name change in 1996 to the East Hampton Daycare and Early Learning Center.

“When she joined, the center was housed in a bunch of trailers on Cedar Street,” Overlock said. “It was really through her that the whole momentum and move to finding a permanent home, and then the focus on high-quality early childhood development and education, it’s really because of Eleanor. We couldn’t possibly have had a 50th anniversary celebration honoring anybody but her.”

Under Whitmore’s leadership, funds were raised for its building on Gingerbread Lane — cementing the center’s presence in the community and, with the final renaming in 2013, Whitmore’s impact on it.

“I am proud to have my name on an organization that serves East Hampton on such a fundamental level,” Whitmore said in a statement, “and to work alongside the wonderful teachers and staff who share our community values.”

Today, more than 100 children between 18 months and 5 years old attend the year-round program, which is currently in the process of being accredited by the National Association for the Education of Children. “We are the only licensed, affordable, accessible, high-quality early childhood education and child care center on the East End,” Overlock said.

The center operates under a unique model, she explained. As a nonprofit, it depends on fundraising to meet its operational costs and keep fees among the lowest in Suffolk County. Even still, one third of the families still need financial assistance, with more than 60 percent of the children who attend living in low-income households.

“We are able to provide reasonable tuition for parents who are mainly working in this community, supporting this community in lots of different ways — some of them working two or three jobs just to survive out here on the East End,” Frazier said. “They need us and we need them because they need to rely on a place where their children can be safe, and they know that we’re consistent with providing them the support they need, especially when they are having to work so much to make ends meet out here. Also, that’s why we started our food pantry.”

In 2020, during the first five months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the center provided free child care for essential workers’ children between 18 months and 12 years old, and opened a pop-up food pantry serving 50 families weekly, which continues to this day. And as pandemic restrictions continue to ease, the center will restart its bilingual parent support programs in the fall, Overlock said.

“We have so many young families and young parents — how do you raise a child?” she said. “Nobody’s trained for this, and it’s so confusing today because there are so many sources. What do you trust? Who you ask? What do you know? So we want to be a real partner with parents in raising children, in helping them not just deal with problems, but help them instill habits and traits that will serve them well.”

The center has also played a role in socializing children who were otherwise isolated during the pandemic, including Zach Bliss’s now-3-year-old son, who “hadn’t had much in the form of interaction during COVID with other kids his age,” he said.

“A spot opened up right around the time when we knew that he needed to be around other kids and he needed more engagement,” Bliss said. “We loved our time with him, but I couldn’t provide what the school could provide. But also, it’s hard to let your most precious person into the care of others — at least it was for us.

“But then, when I met everybody there, immediately we knew we had made the right decision,” he continued. “Because, I mean, it’s just nothing but love at that school.”

The staff showed his son gentleness and kindness as he was adjusting and learning to socialize, Bliss said, and gave his family tools to use at home. They created an environment of trust and safety, which is what stands out to Chris Jimenez, who is also a volunteer with the food pantry. He and his wife, Maria, work in health care sales and needed full-day care for their children, he said. Their 3-year-old son, Milo, currently attends the center, and his 6-year-old daughter, Isabel, graduated last year.

“Just the way I see them with the families in the morning, I think it’s so great. My wife and I feel so safe dropping off our kids there,” he said. “Honestly, I didn’t know where I’d be without them, to be completely honest. They’re really the only game in town.”