When Helen Goodnight created the Child Garden in 1955, her only experience with children was with her 5-year-old son, John.
Goodnight was a smart businesswoman, though, and she knew a preschool that offered more than just babysitting was a smart move.
Unlike a standard day care, the Child Garden was a pre-kindergarten elementary school with certified teachers who would help kids learn.
Even today, students can often be found in rocking chairs with teachers, learning to read, or out in the backyard catching bugs and studying them.
"If you hadn't told me it was 50 years ago, I wouldn't have believed it," remarks John Goodnight.
But even though he was young, his mom still put him to work."I remember that we'd spend weekends cleaning equipment and fixing stuff." Child Garden was originally located on West Street, next to the Goodnight home, until Saint Mary's Hospital expansion plans forced a move to a Victorian-style home at 455 Hill St.
In 1965, Linda Vlautin was hired as assistant director."There was very little in the way of preschools here back then," remembers Vlautin."I thought this would be perfect, and my little boy could go there while I worked.
To this day, that's still how we get the best teachers because they enjoy being where their own children are." Four years after she was hired, Vlautin bought the school from Goodnight and began its expansion.
She had spotted a house for sale at 525 Plumas and thought it ideal for their new kindergarten program, which opened in 1979.
Today the kindergarten serves about 35 children; the Hill Street location, still a pre-kindergarten, serves about 60.
IGT approached Vlautin in the mid-80s about starting a new preschool nearby on Reactor Way, so that employees could be near their children.
That location opened in 1987, and when IGT relocated to the South Meadows area in the late 1990s, a new Child Garden opened on Prototype Drive.All four locations are still fully operational.
"We've been here longer than most schools, and I think that's comforting to parents," says Kelly Gonzalez, who took over the Hill Street and Plumas Street locations in 2001."These are kids' first steps in formal education.We make it fun, so that they'll stay interested in learning."
The kindergarten on Plumas is a full-day program, unlike those of public schools.
"The majority of kids leave our kindergarten program already reading, and parents actually call us down the road to tell us how wonderfully they're doing," says Gonzalez.
Some parents and grandparents who bring new children have warm memories of their own days at the preschool.
Other former students have returned to teach.
"It's a very warm, loving atmosphere," Vlautin says."That's the No.
1 thing that makes it special.You walk in, and you'll always see one or two kids on a lap or kids at tables drawing.
It's a feeling that your child is in very good hands."
Even John Goodnight remembers that feeling." The school was a source of pride for my mom, and for all those who have worked there.
The teachers saw to it that kids got a jump on education and the growing they needed.
They make sure every child gets attention, so they're attentive to class size and having the right equipment.
It was always ahead of its time." While many 50-year-old businesses might celebrate their changes, those who have worked at Child Garden take the greatest pride in what hasn't changed.
"We give children a wonderful experience.
We treat them respectfully so they learn respect," says Vlautin."Even with different owners and different management styles, the philosophy's always been the same.We are there for those children."
(To mark the 50th birthday, Kelly Gonzalez is planning a September birthday party.
Anyone who attended Child Garden as a kid is invited to contact her at 322-3471 about the celebration.)
