Roofless academy remains educational refuge

For 45 years the yellow trailer has withstood storms, hurricanes, heat, rain and all kinds of disasters.

It's now covered with a bright blue tarpaulin in place of a roof, courtesy of a hurricane named Wilma.

But the lady in charge of what's going on inside that trailer is tough. She's not afraid of hurricanes. She's not afraid of tarpaulins. She's too busy making changes in the lives of little people who, she hopes, will make changes of their own someday.

Kim Long told all about it to nearly 200 women at the 14th Annual Marco Island Women's Interfaith Gathering, held Jan. 30 at San Marco Catholic Church's new parish center.

"Why is my 'Wicked Wilma' lasting longer than others?

We've been in that trailer 45 years. It used to be the original sales trailer for Port Royal.

Well, we're finally supposed to be getting a new building — but we lost (the old) roof to Wilma," said Long, executive director of Fun Time Early Childhood Academy, which is housed in that trailer in Naples.

She told of the damage left by the hurricane, which struck the area Oct. 24, and of the efforts of some "remarkable" men who cleaned the trailer, got the water out and salvaged it so classes could continue as usual, with Fun Time's 4-year-old occupants never knowing the difference.

Long, who also is a member of the Edison College Board of Trustees, focused on what the academy does. The name "academy" in its title tells you that learning takes place there, she said.

"Our purpose is to make sure that our children are ready to read by the time they enter the public school system," she said.

"We teach them discipline and structure that transcend socioeconomic barriers."

Fun Time's three goals are to serve as a community model for early literacy and learning; to encourage family engagement, because no child can learn if the family isn't involved; and to work in a partnership with Florida Gulf Coast University in Estero.

Long said the academy is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. The association is the Washington, D.C.-based equivalent of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the prestigious accrediting agency for colleges and universities in the southeastern U.S.

"We're extremely proud of that," Long said. "We are highly regulated, and someone is in every day to make sure we continue improvement. We're very appreciative of having them keep us on target."

Long told the women, who represented several island churches and the Jewish Congregation of Marco, that there's a need for a place like Fun Time because its children come from very low-income families in which the parents have never received a formal education and don't have social or communication skills to get by in today's world.

"Over 90 percent of our kids receive free or reduced-price lunches," Long said, indicating those children receive help through federal funding programs. "Their parents don't participate, not because they don't want to, but because they don't have time. They work very hard, many of them with two or three jobs."

In addition to learning, reading and classroom behavior, Fun Time treats its young charges to field trips, extracurricular activities, computer and technology skills, dance, tumbling, xylophone, colors and shapes, and letters and numbers.

"We know our children have less than five books at home," Long said. "We started a partnership with Collier County called First Book, which makes sure our kids receive one book per month. They treat those books like blocks of gold."

Fun Time's children arrive as young as 2 weeks old and stay until they're 4, when they can enter prekindergarten classes in local public schools.

"All our children live at or below federal poverty level," Long said. "Life for them is a daily struggle — at a very young age."

Long fielded questions from her audience, which wanted to know the No. 1 stumbling block at Fun Time (lack of family involvement) and where Fun Time would find a staff for its new building, which will be larger and able to care for up to 300 children ("It keeps me awake at night — but we'll just have to recruit people").

And the yellow trailer with the blue tarp on the roof?

Joy Hopkins, who introduced Long, took the microphone at the end of Long's presentation.

"We're going to deviate from our normal routine," she told the women of the Interfaith Gathering, hosted by Wesley United Methodist Church.

"A new roof on the trailer is going to cost about $20,000," Hopkins said. "We're asking you to make a small donation, whatever amount you want to give, so we can send Kim home with a little something extra for her school."