Rooted In Learning

This photo shows a five-day class in 1980. Among the students in the 1980 class is Chris Goodwin, the husband of current Learning Land board member Alyssa Goodwin. His mother, Nancy Goodwin, was a board member at the school while he was a student there. (Courtesy of Alyssa Goodwin)

BRUNSWICK — When Jan Bodwell started Learning Land Nursery School in 1962 with Olive “Ollie” Elliot, she had no idea that the preschool would take root so strongly in Brunswick.

Jan Bodwell and Olive “Ollie” Elliot, sit outside with Learning Land preschool students during the early days of the school, which opened in 1962. (Courtesy of Alyssa Goodwin)

On Monday, Learning Land will commemorate its 50th year of operation by joining in the Brunswick-Topsham Memorial Day Parade and hosting a reception afterward.

This photo shows students in a 1975 class, including Chris Goodwin’s brother, Rob, wearing the hat on the right. (Courtesy of Alyssa Goodwin)

“It’s been a great thing — much more than we envisioned when it started,” Bodwell said.

At that time, Bodwell and Elliot took inspiration from coursework and teaching in early childhood education at the University of Maine at Orono and turned it into a learning opportunity for their own children.

Elliot had three children to bring into the program. Bodwell had two of her own, and about five other students came into the fold during the preschool’s first year, Bodwell remembered.

Today, the preschool accommodates more than 60 students.

“As young mothers, we couldn’t find a situation that we felt was most beneficial for our own children,” Bodwell said.

At the outset, Bodwell said, those attending the school were primarily her and Elliot’s children.

“We kind of produced our own clientele,” Bodwell said, “but it was great.”

While some things have changed — such as expanding the school to include morning and afternoon sessions — that cross-generational theme persists.

Chris Goodwin, the husband of Learning Land board member Alyssa Goodwin, attended Learning Land as a child around 1980. Recently, his daughter also attended the school.

That pattern is now fairly common, according to director Bonnie Redzinak, who has been with Learning Land for three years in that capacity and for about 13 years as a teacher before that.

Redzinak’s two daughters, who have now graduated from college, also attended. One daughter now works as a substitute preschool teacher in Portland.

Having an early start in school, Redzinak said, her daughters “were more confident going into kindergarten and they excelled in school.”

Chris Goodwin echoed the same praises of early education for himself and for his daughter.

“It is really laying the groundwork for going on to kindergarten,” Goodwin said.

Visiting the school while his daughter attended sparked memories of his past there, Goodwin said, and brought to mind the school’s long legacy of early education in Brunswick.

At the 50-year mark, Goodwin said, those lessons from the preschool’s long history now carry it forward.

“That’s a pretty good run and a pretty good record,” Goodwin said. “The fact that it’s still there and still going strong says a lot about the people who have been involved and the value of it to the parents and the community.”

That longevity, Bodwell said, is due largely to the choice in 1969 to make the privately owned preschool a nonprofit organization, a move she said was brought on partly by a decision at First Parish Church, which owns the building at 9 Cleaveland St., to rent only to nonprofit groups.

“It could have only succeeded in this way by becoming a nonprofit,” Bodwell said. “I’m sure of that.”

In 2011, the organization reported raising $112,085 to cover $109,236 in operating expenses and had just over $40,000 at the end of the year, according to the nonprofit organization’s 990 forms filed with the IRS.

In 50 years, the nonprofit school has had seven directors: Bodwell, Annie Haskell, Martha Hinkley, Mary-Lou Gilette, Julia McCullough, Nancy Morrell and Redzinak.

The formation of the school also made a lesser-known and indirect mark on the community. In 1985, Bodwell and her neighbors in the town’s Pennellville Historic District banded together to preserve an area known as “the Meadow.”

As with Learning Land, Bodwell would help the organization through the process of becoming the nonprofit Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust. Today, the land trust conserves more than 1,900 acres, including the 315-acre Crystal Spring Farm.

“You know,” Bodwell said, reflecting on both organizations, “these things I kind of initiated have really taken wings.”

Learning Land celebration planned for Monday

Current and past Learning Land families and students are invited to join in 50th anniversary celebrations Monday, when the group plans to participate in the Brunswick-Topsham Memorial Day Parade and then host a reception at 9 Cleaveland St.

For the parade, participants are advised to meet between 7:30 a.m. and 7:45 a.m. at Cox Insurance near the Topsham municipal complex on Main Street.

The parade is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m., and the reception at Learning Land is scheduled from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

For more information, call 725-4387 or visit www.learninglandnurseryschool.com.

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