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Children's Center Awarded Scholarship Funds


Spying a drawing of canines on the wall, Sen. Pat Vance asked the 3-year-olds if any of them had a dog at home. Small hands shot into the air. “I do!” one said. “I have a fish!” another offered. “I have a sister!” another added, eagerly.

Vance had come to the Dickinson College Children’s Center to celebrate the donation of $12,500 in Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program scholarships by SeniorLIFE York and the Bridge Educational Foundation. Part of a Pennsylvania program in support of pre-kindergarten education, the scholarship funds will help qualified families take advantage of the center’s exceptional programming for children from 6 weeks to 6 years old. [Story continues below.] 


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  • John Durbin of the Bridge Educational Foundation (right), speaks with SeniorLIFE’s Ross Nese (left) prior to the ceremony.  “Early-childhood education gives you the building blocks for success later in life,” Durbin said.
    Building Blocks
  • Gina Van Kirk, director of the Children’s Center (right), welcomes Sen. Pat Vance to the facility.
    Gina Van Kirk
  • Vance greets 3-year-olds at the Dickinson College Children’s Center.
    Greetings
  • Speaking to a classroom of transfixed three-year-olds, Vance read a storybook to the children about a little girl who helped others. “She helped others. That made her beautiful, inside and out,” Vance told them.
    Inner Beauty
  • Vance thanks the children for a dog-themed thank-you card. “I’ll hang it up in my office,” she told the children.
    Puppy Love
  • At the center, children are assigned classrooms according to age. Officials visited the classroom of younger 3-year-olds during the visit. Above, Nese, Vance, Durbin and the children pose with an oversized check symbolizing Bridge Educational Foundation and SeniorLIFE York’s recent contribution. Photo courtesy of the Bridge Educational Foundation.
    Large Check
  • Ross Nese of SeniorLIFE views his homemade thank-you note. Photo courtesy of the Bridge Educational Foundation.
    Ross Nese
  • A homemade sign welcomed Sen. Vance to the Children’s Center.
    Welcoming Environment
John Durbin of the Bridge Educational Foundation (right), speaks with SeniorLIFE’s Ross Nese (left) prior to the ceremony.  “Early-childhood education gives you the building blocks for success later in life,” Durbin said.Prev ImageNext Image

Greater opportunities 

Unique to Pennsylvania, the EITC initiative provides a tax credit of 100 percent of funds contributed to pre-kindergarten scholarships of up to $10,000 per year, and 90 percent of additional funds of up to $150,000 per year.  The Bridge Educational Foundation, established under the EITC program, partnered with SeniorLIFE York to support scholarships at five select employer-provided childcare facilities, including the Dickinson College Children’s Center.

“Children who grow up with no books and no support for education in the home are at a huge disadvantage when they enter school,” said Vance, who represents Pennsylvania’s Cumberland and York counties. Quality early-childhood programs such as those found at Dickinson, she added, can set them on the right track. 

A head start 

That’s a founding principle at the Children’s Center, which is open to families in the Dickinson and surrounding communities. The facility will provide care, an individual base and personal enrichment for 114 pre-kindergarten students this year. 

All of the center’s 25 staff members have bachelor’s or associate’s degrees, and there is at least one certified teacher in every classroom, said the center’s director, Gina Van Kirk. “We also have a very supportive clientele, and that makes our job easier, because we are all on the same page,”  she explained. “We all want what is best for the child.”

Vance and Ross Nese of SeniorLIFE York saw the results of that shared mission Aug. 13 when they each read a book to a classroom of inquisitive, engaged three-year-olds. Nese concluded the presentation by telling the children, “You’re very lucky. When you get into grade school and high school, you’ll be way ahead of everyone else.”

By MaryAlice Bitts Jackson
Photos by Carl Socolow ’77