Editorial: Gayle Gave Kids a Nurturing Start

Like many who came here thinking “stepping stone,” Gayle ended up finding a footing-turned-foundation. Later this week, she will officially retire after a 32-year career building the Sandhills Children’s Center into a multi-county operation that offers one of the best developmental environments for children of all abilities.

Running a child care center is never easy. There’s compliance with a complex body of state and local regulations. There’s developing a curriculum, hiring staff, marketing, fundraising and community building. All that gets exponentially harder when dealing with children of special needs, those with hearing and speech. disabilities, physical and cognitive limitations.

In a community geared toward either retirement or rural living, it was no small feat that Sandhills Children’s Center thrived and grew into such an esteemed organization. Today, parents get on its waiting list as soon as they learn they’re pregnant and, with luck, might see an opening before kindergarten.

‘The Next Level’

Moore County today is full of successful organizations that began in church basements. The Children’s Center is no different. From its founding in the early 1970s until it opened its Central Drive location in 1988, the center operated in fellowship halls and borrowed space.

There were just 47 students when Gayle started. All had some form of disability. Today, the Southern Pines center serves 130 children ranging from newborns to pre-kindergartners. Its Rockingham facility, which Gayle spearheaded in 2008, serves 110 students.

Early on, Gayle saw a need for quality child care and, in 1991, opened the center to nondisabled students. Although the center has expanded its service to all children, it has kept a priority on those with special needs.

“Melanie was always available and always looking to make sure that we stayed true to the mission and provided the highest quality services for children with\ special needs in an inclusive environment,” said Mary Sonnenberg, who worked under Gayle for 20 years.

“We really took the organization to the next level, and that was certainly due to her leadership over the years.”

An Innovator and Builder

Gayle saw the strength in mixing children of different abilities. What the school — and the parents — found is that all the children flourished.

“Our kids, I think, got so much out of the tolerance that it creates, for children to have toward kids with disabilities and challenges,” said Rob Barrett, the center’s board chairman, who had all three daughters go through the school. “They are totally accepting of kids of different diverse needs, and I think that’s really what makes the children’s center so special.”

Gayle, who studied speech pathology and audiology at the University of Virginia, understood the power typical children could bring to their classmates with special needs.

“Early intervention is what it’s all about. It’s critical to their cognitive development, their social-emotional development,” said Gayle. “The earlier you can get your hands on a child, or intervene with a child, the better their chances for success.”

Again, it bears reminding that this was all built in a small county more accustomed to growing peaches and retirement accounts than children, much less special-needs children.

But Gayle’s leadership over the years turned Sandhills Children’s Center into a cause the whole community could support. Its annual Festival of Trees event turned 25 this past year and has been wildly successful over the years, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the children.

“It takes a lot of community support to do everything that the Children’s Center does for children with challenges,” Barrett said. “Melanie has done a phenomenal job with building relationships in the community.”

Melanie Gayle sought a stepping stone. She stayed and built a mountain.