Palm Beach insider, Claire Patterson, knew the recipe for success. She had wrapped her life in the security of family, friends and a successful career. Hired as a consultant, Claire surprised everyone, leaving Palm Beach to spend the summer in rural Oh

25,000 SEEDS

Where LOVE GrowsBy Helen Noble

Balboa Press

Copyright © 2012Helen Noble
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4525-4860-9

Chapter One

Norma was sure she knew what she needed to do. She was looking for the money with which to hire a consultant who could come in to create a new program, know how to fund it, write a grant for the funding requirements, find an off-site location, and supply the building criteria. In the meeting she spoke openly to the board.

"The public school has been hit hard with cutbacks the likes of which we have never seen before. There are no funds available in next year's school budget with which to fund the before-school or after-school child care programs. There isn't enough money to keep the lights on during program hours, let alone pay the staff." Had the board seen this coming? Yes! Had they addressed the problem which had been growing for the past three years? No! As every area in the curriculum was pared back from year to year, they shifted funds around in school budgets, making it appear as though there was enough to go around and deferring fiscal responsibility year after year. Unable to continue this approach any longer, the emergency meeting was called to solve the dire problem in which Salinger now found itself. She continued, "Without a stimulus, the town could lose an essential segment of its future growth - young families. Our schools are one of the most important elements that keep this town viable and a proud, family-oriented community."

As rural towns shrank and families moved closer to jobs, education and child care were aspects of a family's quality of life which determined if, or where, these families might relocate to. Farming families were shrinking, and even in rural America there wasn't always alternative safe and educational childcare. Not that most of these parents necessarily always thought that way, but Norma did. She wanted more for the children of Salinger.

As soon as she realized the before and after-school child care would not be able to continue, she immediately thought of Claire Patterson. She seemed like someone who could provide the solution to their problem. That is, if the number on the business card was still in service. Before she picked up the phone to call, Norma had needed to find out how much the town could afford to pay a consultant. Embarrassed, yet desperate, and not knowing quite what to say, she called Claire anyway.

Back from the beach after an early morning walk, Claire was sitting by the pool having breakfast and going through her mail. It was the last day of March and there was a tropical breeze coming off the ocean with just enough haze in the sky to make it a balmy eighty-three degree day, rather than a ninety degree scorcher. Palm Beach was a unique place; the snowbirds left just before Easter, and traffic thinned out, yet you could feel nothing was slowing down. Restaurant and retail shop owners caught their breath as they were quickly preparing for a second wave to arrive. As long as the dollar remained weak, European and South American tourists would begin arriving right after the first of May.

Claire loved her life but had recently been feeling restless inside. She was craving a change of scenery - something different. This feeling was new to her and she didn't like it. It didn't conform to the nice organized life she had built around herself. Surely this is temporary, she thought. Far too distracted these days she promised herself she was going to slow down her work schedule. She had good people working for her after all, and she did not have to personally be involved on every project. So far though, morning coffee on the lanai and occasional walks on the beach were as close as she had come to bringing some needed balance into her life. I'm working on it! She thought as she considered, Where could I go? What could I try that's different? Something different didn't mean another trip to Paris or London. And she didn't want to take another cycling trip like the one through Tuscany. No, none of these feel right.

Excited, she was looking forward to next week. She was going to see her children. It was always a highlight - and one that took thoughtful planning. This time of year they came down from Chicago and New York. This had become their annual family reunion. Claire, her children, and their significant others gathered every April. Right after her divorce, Claire knew she had to find a way to keep the children coming together and maintaining their foursome as a family. So what started out as spring break in Palm Beach evolved over twelve years into the annual family reunion. This April the twins, Ethan and Kate, were turning thirty. Her other daughter, Ali, was twenty-eight. Their family motto became, "Any excuse for a celebration!" Every year they each had to contribute reasons for celebration to the party. Of course, this year it would be the twins' thirtieth birthday. Also, Ali had recently gotten engaged and Sam, her fiancé, was coming with her. For Claire, this summer marked the opening of the thirty-second franchise of her after-school Children's Centers.

Now that the kids were grown and establishing their own lives and careers, this had become the only time during the year when they all took their vacations together and caught up with one another. It reminded her of Christmases when the children were growing up. During these reunion trips they always fell back into being who they were at ages eight or ten. She thought, How they digress when they're here, and how I love it! The four of them were very close, and, while the children were growing up, Claire had a saying that they all took to heart. "If you would pick yourself to be your best friend, you've succeeded. If you talk to yourself like you would want to be spoken to, you're at peace. And if you can feel the warmth of the sunlight when you look up, you're grounded." Now, with their big lives ahead of them, she didn't worry about them anymore, other than the usual motherly angst. She had faith they had grown up to understand a deeper sense of their inner selves. She was always there to talk, giving them a place to vent, laugh, or cry. She was grateful knowing the divorce, and the subsequent years, had not changed any of their closeness.

Watching as three egrets lunged across the yard, her focus shifted. What to do this summer - Something out of the usual. She drifted far away, off in a daydream.

Startled, she found herself on a faraway island somewhere, listening to the familiar sound of steel drums ringing. Steel drums ringing? Ringing! It was the ring of her phone. Back to reality she answered the call, though not recognizing the area code. A Norma Nagel quickly jolted Claire back to reality and was reminding her that they had spoken six years before at an education conference. Then, she began describing how her community needed help. Claire remembered that conference in Chicago. It was where she had given a call for education reform. Those were exciting times. She thought. At the time, she had just returned from Washington after having been invited to testify before congress about setting a national standard for elementary after-school child care. Since then, the results had been adopted in twenty-eight states (and still growing) as "The Safe Schools Off-Campus Program." The program which Claire advocated confirmed that students, who at a young age (kindergarten through the sixth grade) had the care and nurturing of well-instituted educational and creative programs, had greater odds of graduating from high school,...