Stacie Reidenbaugh is the executive director for Lancaster Area Habitat for Humanity and a former student of Lancaster Early Education Center (formerly Lancaster Day Care Center). Read along as she shares how these two community organizations have impacted her personal life, plus learn about changes on the horizon for one organization.
1. Where are you from?
I’m a Lancaster County native and currently living in Centerville.
2. How did Lancaster Early Education Center affect your life/prepare you for life?
Lancaster Day Care Center (now Lancaster Early Education Center) was my first school; it provided a safe and stable place to learn with teachers that my parents could trust, and for me it was a great place to play, learn and meet new friends. I learned valuable life lessons from simple activities, like how to work together with other people to create something, whether it was using cardboard building bricks and Tinker Toys or making applesauce from apples we bought on a walk down the block to Southern Market. The center also taught me to respect people of all faiths and ethnicities.
3. What is the most important lesson you have tried to teach your children?
I have two daughters, Kaitlan and Zoey. The most important lesson that I have tried to instill in them is the critical importance of education and lifelong learning.
4. Are you still involved in Lancaster Early Education Center?
Yes! I was asked to join the board of directors in 2010, and today I serve as the vice president of the board and on the long-range planning and expansion committees.
5. What led you to becoming the executive director of Habitat for Humanity in Lancaster?
I started out as a worksite volunteer and realized that I share a common background with many of the families that Habitat serves through homeownership, so I wanted to help provide opportunities for families to change their lives and break the cycle of poverty.
6. What is the most rewarding part of your job?
Seeing children of Habitat homeowners do well in school and graduate from high school and college.
7. The hardest part of your job?
Finding affordable real estate
8. What’s one fact people may not realize about Habitat for Humanity?
Habitat does not give away homes, but we empower families to build self-sufficiency by selling each home and repair service at cost and providing affordable zero-percent interest loans to ensure homeownership is sustainable.
9. What do you like to do for fun?
Volunteering, travelling with friends and family, and hosting dinner parties
10. What’s your favorite spot in your own home and why?
Our back deck, because it’s surrounded by trees and very peaceful
11. Favorite book?
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
12. Favorite movie?
Fight Club
13. TV show?
Anything with Anthony Bourdain
14. Favorite place locally to go out to eat?
Carr’s
15. What’s one thing people may not know about you?
I have this crazy dream of someday buying a farm and starting a program to teach kids how to grow and prepare good food.
A local organization gets a new name and look:
Lancaster Early Education Center (formerly Lancaster Day Care Center) opened in 1915 and provides high-quality care for children of low to moderate income working families in Lancaster County.
In 2015, the Center celebrated its 100th anniversary and changed its name to Lancaster Early Education Center. The new name demonstrates the center’s commitment to quality and affordable early education. Since 1915, Lancaster Early Education Center has served more than 20,000 low- to moderate-income working families. The majority of those families earn less than $25,000 per year and 100 percent receive some tuition assistance based on their income. The nonprofit, charitable organization strives to improve the quality of life of the children they serve and currently has more than 300 children on the waiting list for care. To make a donation, volunteer or learn more about Lancaster Early Education Center, visit www.ldcc.org or call 717-392-7413.