Good morning, Friends!
This week’s celebration is unique in that it involves one of our schools that has not even opened yet – Little Sprouts Hingham, which will be welcoming south shore families later this spring. A little bit of background: opening a new school involves a lot of moving pieces, including pre-enrolling families and hiring wonderful teachers, all while we await the completion of construction. We like to have an idea of a general timeframe when the school will hold its grand opening so both families and teachers can plan accordingly. Unfortunately, construction is a factor out of our control which can occasionally cause unforeseen delays, and such has been the case with Hingham. This can cause very understandable anxiety for families as they look to secure their child care.
It takes an all-star team to help with those feelings of unease, and luckily that’s just what we have. One of our enrollment specialists, Janet O’Connor, and Melinda Flanagan, who will serve as Executive Director of Little Sprouts Hingham, have gone above and beyond to ensure these families that they are well taken care of. This past week, we held an open house at the school to show the families the progress we have made. Marketing Specialist Zack King, who was at the open house, was in awe of Janet and Melinda’s presence with the families:
“Waiting for the families to arrive, I felt a little bit of anxiety in the air – this was the first time we would be seeing them and showing them the school, after delivering a few updates regarding construction delays. The anxious feelings were all for nothing, though, because it was amazing to watch Janet and Melinda in action. The connections Janet makes with these families when speaking with them on the phone is nothing short of incredible, and you get to see it in action at an open house. She genuinely wants to greet every single one that comes through the door, so she can put a face to the name, the voice, and the experience she has learned through her phone calls. It can be hard for her to meet them all – she becomes a bit of a celebrity! Families that have completed their tour of the school and are on their way out the door will wait a few minutes until she is done speaking with a family, all so they can have a moment to meet the wonderful person who has been on the other side of the phone. You can tell that any remaining feelings of unease totally disappear after they meet Melinda, too; they know that once their children start at the school, this is a director who is so present, so caring, and so personable, that they will be in the best of hands. It was pure magic – I don’t know how else to explain it!”
Real Passion is a wonderful thing to have on our side. When faced with adversity, Janet and Melinda never let that passion suffer, and our prospective families could feel it. The real connections that were made could very well have been the deciding factor for some of these families, as they considered all of their options given the delays. It is not surprising, but makes me proud nonetheless, to see that families are exposed to that passion from the very first minute they reach out to us. Thank you, Janet & Melinda!