Page 7 - Mid Valley Times 10-21-21 E-edition

Thursday, October 21, 2021
The View From Here
Early Education Center now open in Reedley
I h a v e mentioned this before, but I wanted to mention again.
By Juanita Adame
Mid Valley Times
The Early Education Cen- ter, located directly behind Reedley High School has been open for nearly one year and on Oct. 13 held an official “open house” welcom- ing event for parents and new parents of the community who are interested in enroll- ing their preschool age chil- dren in the program.
“This program is funded by partial state funding but its also open to families that typically make too much to qualify for state preschool we have private pay slots here as well,” said Megan Tupper, the Early Learning Director.
“It’s blended funding and it’s also a VROP program so we have high school students taking a child development course right here in this stu- dent room.”
The preschool facility works with VROP students who are learning to become future educators.
“We have a morning [preschool] class and an af- ternoon class here each has twelve preschool students in it,” Tupper said.
“We are currently work-
One of
the parts of
our newspa-
per that was
hit the hard-
est during the COVID-19 pandemic was the commu- nity calendar.
Prior to 2020, events flowed into our email inbox and we gladly posted ev- erything we had room for, sometimes having to hold certain events because we’d run out of room.
When the pandemic hit, of course we went into lock- down and all events were wiped out.
Along with that, our community calendar was also wiped out. I can’t stress enough how in that moment I realized how connected we are to the community and how connected the commu- nity is with our newspaper.
I read a recent report that stated COVID-19 num- bers were down significant- ly in California. This means of course, life as we know it is returning to “normal.”
And for us that means many of our events are re- turning to the community calendar section of our pa- per.
Today was the first day in a long time where we had more events to post than room.
What we do when that happens is we stick with what is coming up first and then save the other events for next week's paper.
With Halloween quickly approaching we've been receiving an influx of Hal- loween "Trick or Treat" and "Trunk or Treat" events to run in our community cal- endar.
I'm happy to say that almost all of the regular Halloween events have re- turned.
This year “Trick or Treat on G Street” is return- ing to downtown Reedley.
That event will be tak- ing place on Friday, Oct. 29 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Over in Sanger, the city is hosting their annu- al "Trunk or Treat" event on Thursday, Oct. 28, in downtown Sanger. Sanger's Trunk or Treat starts at 6:30 p.m. Parlier has also brought back their Trunk or Treat event. It will be on Halloween night at Heri- tage Park starting at 6 p.m.
These are just a few of the local Halloween events that have returned. Next week we will share a com- plete list for residents.
Here's hoping everyone has a safe and fun Hallow- een night.
Juanita Adame
Juanita Adame / Mid Valley Times
Dogs from all over the city of Dinuba showed up to Nebraska Park on the morning of Oct. 16 to participate in this year's "Dog Days" event. There were contests for best costume, best fetch, and owner and dog look a like. More than one hundred people attended the event.
Book signing to be held in downtown Reedley on Nov. 6
Juanita Adame / Mid Valley Times
Part of the playground area at the new Early Education Center in Reedley. The center opened close to one year ago and is currently accepting applications for new preschool age children.
ing on filling up the afternoon class too so we’re hoping to get some interested families today.”
Tupper also said there is an infant and toddler center as well however that portion of the program is not open to the community just yet.
“That [toddler and infant] side is a full day program open 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.,” she said.
“We serve both teen par- ents and district staff it’s kind of a combination of both right now, it is at a reduced fee for district staff too half of what
childcare normally is.” Applications for the pre- school side are currently be- ing accepted. Tupper said ap- plications can be picked up at the center itself or by visiting
earlylearning.kcusd.com.
Dinuba celebrates local pups
Promotions take place at Sanger Police Department
Photo Courtesy Sanger Police Dept. / Facebook Page
From left, Tobias Hughes sworn in as an officer with the Sanger Police Department, Joshua Johnson who was sworn in as a Lieu- tenant, and Manuel Duran, sworn in as a sergeant.
Photo of the week
Contributed
A Reedley woman has pub- lished a new psychology book called Healing with Nature.
Rochelle (Wilder) Calvert, a RHS graduate grew up in Reedley and attended Fresno State before moving to San Diego to earn a Ph.D. in psy- chology.
Calvert is the founder and clinical director of the New Mindful Life clinic in San Di- ego.
Calvert is a psychologist and somatic experiencing practitioner who is certified in a variety of mindfulness,
meditation and trau- ma healing practices.
She is the daugh- ter of Lar- ry Wilder, a former
Reedley mayor.
Rochelle Calvert
Calvert will be hosting a book signing on Nov. 6 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Sweet Desti- nations in downtown Reedley.
For more information contact monique@newworld- library.com or (619) 261-8510.
Contributed
This photo of Nathaniel and Samantha Ortiz enjoying the Los An- geles Dodgers' recent win against the San Francisco Giants was sent in by De Andrea Rosales. Have a photo you'd like featured? Email juanita@midvalleypublishing.com.