PennAEYC
Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children
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Featured Chapter - Eastern Pennsylvania AEYC

 

Geographic Area: Berks and Schuylkill Counties

 

Number of Members: 155

 

Board Composition: Co-Presidents, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Membership, Public Policy Chair, Newsletter, Week of the Young Child, Accreditation Chair and Hospitality

 

Board Members: Karen Kile/Karen Pieffer (Co-Pres), Donna Conte (VP),

Lisa Clavell (Sec.),Michelle Wunder (Treasurer/ Membership), Anita Powell (Public Policy Chair/ Hospitality), Jolene Weeks ( Newsletter), Christina Hoffman (WOYC), Kate Bayer  (Accreditation)

 

Annual Activities: Member’s Only Event (Fall), Progressive Dinner (Spring) and one community outreach (Flexes)

 

Meeting Schedule: Six times a year

 

Contact Info: kilejk@ptd.net and espkvp87@aol.com

 

EPAEYC began in 1978. Since its origination, our local affiliate has always been involved with community events, as well as professional development.

 

Professional development has always been an important component of our organization.  

In our earlier years, our affiliate offered an annual conference called “Kidstuff”.  Later we began to help sponsor other community groups for one-day professional development events such as The Columbus Day Training and The Special Needs Conference.

 

Our association has provided a “Fun Fest” for many years in conjunction with the Week of the Young Child. Participating organizations create or supply a developmentally appropriate activity for young children to make or enjoy.   Fun Fest continues to evolve, meeting the needs of young children and their families.

Recently, we began to offer a “Member’s Only Event” where our local members are presented with a special occasion designed just for them.  The program’s objective is to “pamper” our members with an event that recognizes and celebrates their dedication to the community and to the young children they serve. 

 

Finally a favorite occasion each year is our springtime Progressive Dinner.  Various early care and education centers or schools volunteer to share their facility with the group.  Participants travel to three different sites; each site providing a piece of our meal…appetizers, main course and dessert! This allows fellow professionals to share ideas, see other centers and school and benefit in the camaraderie of the evening.

 

EPAEYC continues to be a vital organization that strives to achieve high quality early childhood education in the Berks county area by uniting, informing and supporting our professionals within the field.  Our mission is to continue this goal, in order to, enhance the lives of young children within our communities.

 

 

Leader Testimonial: 

Michelle Wunder - Treasurer/Membership

 My name is Michelle Wunder.  I have worked in the field of early childhood for nearly 35 years.  I had the opportunity to be involved with NAEYC and Berks County’s local affiliate, Eastern PA Association of Young Children (EPAEYC) for over 30 years and served as the Membership Chair and Treasurer of EPAEYC since 1992.  It is a core belief of mine that local and national NAEYC involvement is essential to building the integrity and value of the early childhood field.  As a professional, I have accessed important research based information and benefited from attendance at several national NAEYC conferences.  My local involvement has allowed me to promote and partake in many networking opportunities of practitioners as well as offer developmental appropriate activities for children and families in the community.

In addition to my position as an Early Childhood Supervisor at the Berks County Intermediate Unit, I am part of our local community engagement’s executive committee, chairing the sub-committee whose goal is to foster the best quality inclusive early care and education.  Our work has gone in several directions.  In the last 6 years, we have focused on the need for professional development and have successfully provided day long seminars on a variety of inclusion topics.  Our latest theme, promoting positive behavior, featured Dr. Sharon Doubet, University of Illinois, as our keynote speaker.  The work that my committee does is supported by several community partnerships, one of which is EPAEYC.

I have also had the pleasure of recently working with the community engagement group and several preschool and school district personnel.  We are implementing a project where preschool and kindergarten teachers visit one another’s classrooms.  Through a series of planned interactions we are developing steps to assure positive transitions from pre-k to kindergarten.

I am also a member of the PACCA Education/Advocacy Committee and I serve on the PA Department of Education’s Kindergarten Advisory Committee.  I am a former member of the Keystone STARS Advisory Committee.