I’ve been in the Berkshires 23 years. And the reason I’m here, is that I wanted to start some early childhood education programs that I had in my head. It could have been in Tennessee or Nevada or God knows where. But I paid a consulting group few hundred dollars to give me guidance.
So after they heard what I was up to, and I would need a sense of community for my children’s programs like Lee, and Lenox, Stockbridge, they guided me to come here. So I came up here, and for the first month or so I literally lived in a tent in Pittsfield State Forest. And then I found a house that I could rent in Pittsfield and moved here in Lenox.
So I came here totally on faith. I didn’t even know what the Berkshires were. So the whole point was to create programs that would serve pre-schools and, through them, the young children.
And I did something smart, initially, which was I spent a little over a year going to the pre-schools and going to childcare, the Berkshires, and children’s health program. And instead of telling them what I was going to do, I asked them: What do you need? So there’s been really a good foundation.
I discovered that they knew what they were doing. They were deeply dedicated and all were short on funds and resources. So instead of creating a program off on it’s own, I built a program that was integrated with children’s health program and with five pre-schools in South County. And the whole thing was to enable them to do what they were doing better. So instead of reinventing the wheel, I helped them to be better pre-schools and a better health program, because I was able to bring them the resources for them to do what they needed to do. It was their choice.
At each pre-school, I had a woman named Maggie Fuller, who is skilled in the schools and pre-schools. She would meet with the director of a school and maybe the directors and the teachers. And together, they worked up a written program: proposal about what they will do to make the school greater.
And then I brought in some experts when they needed them, but especially the money. So each school made itself better the way they wanted to do it. And that was the key to the whole thing. If you’re doing what you feel you want to do, you’d really get in and put your heart in it. So that was the foundation of it.
When we got the program going, in maybe 1992, Krishna Priya at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health wanted a community service program that Kripalu would fund that would be a “Thank you” to Lenox, Lee, and Stockbridge. But it was also good PR, that Kripalu was reaching out to help the community.
So she opened up a contest to see who could come up with the best community service idea that Kripalu would fund. And they had things like building an Om Café somewhere in Lenox. There’s was a lot of stuff that I thought was really absurd. Fortunately, she had a half-dozen, basically, Berkshire Kripalu community members who were professionals in business, or teachers, or public relations. And she gave them the assignment to follow me around and find out what I was talking about. So we went to each pre-school along with two of my volunteers.
At each pre-school, the school director said, “Henry is doing is exactly what we need, to observe the children and make our school better.” So at the end of the summer, all these volunteers, plus myself, made an enthusiastic presentation to Krishna Priya. She loved the whole idea, and that got us going. In the first year, Kripalu provided a hundred percent of my funding. So I got everything up and running and proved that it worked.
We had a whole package of programs. We brought in the resources each school needed to have better materials for the teachers to work with, like nature materials for example.
We have an absolutely glorious fitness program that evolved from Bonnie Prudden at the Academy for Mind Therapy and Physical Fitness here in Lenox. She had developed an exercise program for kids who are two, three, four years old, and we brought it in to five pre-schools in South Country. For about 20 minutes, the kids would go through a set routine exercise program, the same every day. We reached the point where four-year-old kids would lead part of the program because they love it.
Another other part of the program was a challenge course that the kids would go through with the teachers right with them. They would pull themselves across a sawhorse. They would jump on a trampoline. They would step between the rungs of a ladder. A three-year-old would say “Wow, I love this!”
At the same time, we measured the results. And they all came out with stronger abdomens, greater flexibility, and better health. So they were having a good time and, at the same time, shaping themselves up.
And then as they got older, they made a beeline for sports, because they had learned about balance, and confidence in themselves, and a love of physical activities. So that was gloriously good.
We found that in each of the pre-schools, the teachers were isolated from the other schools, because there was no money for them to be able to go on around visiting, and they knew each other as friends. So what we paid for them to have substitute teachers come in and take their place for a day. And a teacher could go to another pre-school in South County, and see what they were doing. So they learned from each other.
And then once a month, we had a catered dinner for them at Lenox Children Center. They would come in after work and get a meal without having to do any cooking. So that was a big attraction in itself. And sometimes I had a very skilled pre-school education woman who volunteered to lead a program where they would discuss things they wanted to. At other times, we bring in an expert on some subject. So, either way, they were all learning.
What I get is satisfaction. Basically, I’ve done this as a volunteer, not as a paid job. That’s basically where I’ve been at. But it’s very satisfying helping these young children get a great start in life.
Photo credit Dave Dery
