27031: Hermantin(News)Agency gave Boynton mother `the best day of my life' (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Sun Sentinel

Agency gave Boynton mother `the best day of my life'




By Edward Sifuentes
Staff Writer

December 30, 2005



Boynton Beach · On her small living room table, there is a picture of Adrienne 
Aristil receiving her bachelor's degree in social work.

The 38-year-old mother of four smiled widely recently looking at the photograph 
as her daughter Janay, 4, darted happily across the room playing with a 
balloon.

"That was the best day of my life," Aristil said, reminiscing about her 
graduation from Florida Atlantic University in August.

Aristil arrived in Florida from Haiti eight years ago. She sacrificed time with 
her family to work full time while attending classes at Palm Beach Community 
College to improve her English skills.

Two of her children are grown and living on their own. Her two youngest, 
Sebastian, 11, and Janay, live with her and her husband in their modest Boynton 
Beach home.

Shuffling schedules for her job with the Palm Beach County School District and 
her husband's job as a cashier at a supermarket made their life difficult. That 
was especially tough because Janay, unlike Sebastian, is still a preschooler, 
Aristil said.

The family searched for low-cost child care until they found the Community 
Child Care Center in Delray Beach.

The Community Child Care Center, a private, nonprofit agency that offers day 
care, education programs and recreation at two locations for 700 children, 
enrolled Janay on a scholarship that reduced the cost of care to $60 a week.

Brenda Jenkins, a curriculum specialist at the center, said Aristil was 
determined, and the agency wanted to help her achieve her goals.

"She was putting herself through school. She's one of those people that is 
always looking to improve herself," Jenkins said "She was a working parent like 
others, but that's not where she wanted to stay."

The Community Child Care Center started in 1968 through the efforts of local 
families and health care workers who were concerned that working families had 
no safe and affordable place to leave their children.

It occupies a three-building campus on Lake Ida Road. In 2004, it also began 
managing the Beacon Center's teen, extended day care and adult programs at the 
Village Academy, 400 SW 12th Ave. in Delray Beach.

Aristil, who credits her success to the center's services, said she is driven 
by the opportunities she sees in her new home country. She said violence and 
rampant crime in her native Haiti make it nearly impossible for people to 
achieve the kinds of goals she has for herself here.

"I'm not going to stop. My dream is to give back to this country and to help my 
people," she said.

Since finishing school this summer, Aristil is teaching a second-grade, French 
dual-language class at Orchard View Elementary in Delray Beach.

In her class, she uses her language skills and knowledge of Haitian culture to 
teach recent immigrant children and to encourage them to thrive.

"When someone knows your struggles and knows you, they can help you better," 
she said. "That's why I can help them better."

Edward Sifuentes can be reached at esifuentes@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6631.


Copyright © 2005, South Florida Sun-Sentinel