CCB MEDIA PHOTO
Tom Weber, the state Commissioner for Early Education and Care, reads to children at a Head Start center in Sagamore yesterday, which was the 50th anniversary of the inception of the Head Start program.
SAGAMORE – Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the creation of the federal Head Start program and local officials used the occasion as an opportunity to highlight the good work of local examples of the program.
President Lyndon B. Johnson announced to the nation the creation of Project Head Start on May 18, 1965 at a White House Rose Garden press conference.
As a nod to that ceremony 50 years ago, State Representative David T. Vieira (R-East Falmouth), state Department of Early Education and Care Commissioner Tom Weber, and Cape Cod Child Development CEO Anne Colwell planted a rose bush at one of the Upper Cape’s Head Start centers, Cape Cod Child Development’s Bourne/Sandwich Center located on Adams Street in Sagamore.
The planting of the rose bush, Vieira said, was to remind everyone of the commitment that was made in the Rose Garden in 1965.
Vieira, Weber and Colwell also read books to children and met with parents during their stop at the Bourne/Sandwich Center.
The three visited three Head Start centers on the Upper Cape yesterday.
Vieira explained why he was spending a good part of the day at preschool centers.
“Today is the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Head Start program, so today it was important for me to come out and to meet in person with families and providers of the Head Start program and to look at the ways that federal program interacts with the state program and resource,” he said.
Vieira said learning what the needs are of the local Head Start programs is especially critical this time of year.
“As you know, we’re in budget season right now and there are ways for us to leverage resources between the state and the federal government and this is one program where we do that. It’s important for me to know what I don’t know by coming out and talking to folks that provide the service but also families that are users of the service,” he said.
Vieira and the others sat down to talk with a grandparents who are raising their granddaughter who attends the program and the wife of a Coast Guardsman whose daughter also attends the program.
Both lauded the program at the Bourne/Sagamore center.
Vieira talked to the group about the importance of Head Start.
“As we’ve seen with Head Start, it’s unique in its level of sustainability but its also unique in its level of progress. We see children coming out of Head Start programs more ready to learn when they enter our public school systems. And so, early education and care in general has been a priority of mine since I entered the legislature and today is a day for me to celebrate that and to get some more knowledge around the issue.”
