It is hard for me to believe that the GAP Center opened its door to the community almost 25 years ago!

It seems like yesterday when the three  founding members: (Monica Guyot, Aisha Abubakar, and Juana Puentes) met in my living room to discuss our vision of what a quality child development center could be.

Juana was not happy with her arrangement with child care;Aisha was not happy with her schooling her grandchildren were getting, and, I was not pleased with my own past arrangements with child care.

The more we talked, the more realistic our visions of a quality child development center became. This vision included  creating for all children what we wanted for our own children -the very best we could provide.  With input from my husband, the GAP Community Child Care Center was born. In April 1982, we officially incorporated under the name GAP Incorporated using the first initial from each of our last names.

I quit my job and worked full time putting our first program together. Eventually Juana and her family moved to California and Aisha resigned from the Board of Directors.  Both Juana and Aisha were great assets in creating what today the GAP Center represents....QUALITY CHILD DEVELOPMENT and an ACCREDITED CENTER.

June, 1982, GAP began a summer camp and on October 18, 1982, the GAP Center opened its doors to the community. We started out with a small, dedicated staff of volunteers and have grown over the years, along with the hundreds of “Gappers” who still keep in touch years after they  graduate from the program and move on to kindergarten and beyond! Today we employee a former Gapper and have children enrolled in the GAP program whose parents were gappers all those years ago.

In the 1990’s, after having branched out into three separate center locations, we gathered our energy and focused on one large center at the Jonathan Woodner Apartments, where we now reside.

Operating a child development center has been fulfilling, challenging, and the very best job I’ve ever held. The rewards of playing a part in helping guide these babies, so they are better prepared academically, socially and developmentally-well, there simply aren’t words to convey what that means to me after almost 25 years! Enduring ties to former GAP parents, staff and grandparents have been very gratifying-it shows how good educational start makes a lasting difference.

One the highlights working over the years has been my long term relationship with Anthony Watts and Barbara Galery both now adminstrators with the GAP Center. I hold them in great esteem and am grateful that I've been given the opportunity to work with them for, 20 years.

We welcome you to GAP!