PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: May 11, 2009
Contact: Teri DiCesare, House at Pooh Corner, 215-843-0815
******
Chances are that if you grew up in Germantown, Mt. Airy or Chestnut Hill, you or someone you know attended pre-K at the legendary House at Pooh Corner, run by Teri DiCesare since its inception in 1979.
Teri was a teacher with a Masters in Early Education, and looking for quality daycare for her own daughter when she found herself facing the same impasse that confronts so many families – the Daycare Dilemma. How could she, an education professional, put her infant daughter into a daycare with an assembly line attitude at best? Did she feel comfortable knowing her baby would be spending eight plus hour days in a dingy church basement, or storefront soaped-window establishment, which were – and for the most part still are – the only “options” for families requiring all day care for their young children.
To bridge her own gap, Teri began a nursery school cum daycare in her Civil War era Germantown home. Within what seemed like no time at all, her business had grown to the extent that it took over her entire three-story manse, eventually driving her out of her own house and home. And it hasn’t stopped. Teri currently has a waiting list for her program, the length of which encourages women to show up at her door holding positive result pregnancy tests in order to reserve a spot for their yet to be progeny. With a future so bright, House at Pooh Corner has decided to go retro, and will be celebrating its 30th year anniversary this June at Awbury Arboretum.
Teri and her staff, a number of whom have been at Pooh Corner for well over half their lives, have spent the past few months reaching out to former students, the eldest of which are now searching for quality daycare for their own children. The result has been remarkable, and gratifying. Using Facebook as their primary meeting place, Pooh Corner has reconnected with over 300 former students and their families, and has also served as a sort of re-matchmaker, connecting alums with each other. “Two best friends, [recent Masterman High School grads] joined us as Facebook friends, independently of each other”, says DiCesare, “And neither remembered having been fast friends when they were two and three, until they saw a photo we posted of the two of them together in our play yard.”
Other grads began posting photos from their own collections, and the site took off as a cyber-touchstone, with current and former “Pooh Corner families” checking in several times a day, “tagging”(Facebook lingo for identifying) themselves and their former compatriots in pictures, adding their recollections, and commenting on their current status. Many co-opted old photos of themselves posted on Pooh’s Facebook Page and are now using them as their “profile pictures”.
The reunion is especially poignant for those going through transitions, whether its graduating from middle school, high school, or college, or getting married and having children on their own. As one alumna said, “Making a new friend, from an old is an amazing experience. Through Pooh Corner I’ve reconnected with so many former classmates. These were – are – the people I spent the early days of my life with, and it’s a feeling I can’t begin to explain.”
If you or someone you know attended the House at Pooh Corner, we urge you to contact us, and invite you to take a quick jaunt down Memory Lane on our Facebook page, Houseat Poohcorner at www.Facebook.com.
Our Anniversary Reunion celebration will be held at the Awbury Arboretum on Saturday, June 20th, from 3:00 – 6:00 pm, and will feature an afternoon of fun-filled activities for everyone including lots of food, games, prizes, live music (featuring, parent, Kevin Hanson of Huffamoose fame), then and now photos and multi-media presentations as well as a moonbounce and plenty of House at Pooh Corner memorabilia. More information, tickets and 30-year commemorative tee shirts are available through our newly re-vamped website www.HouseAtPoohCornerDaycare.com.
