Lillington, NC—

On Tuesday, December 14th, staff from the Harnett County Partnership for Children, a Smart Start agency, met with Representative David Lewis to discuss the importance of early childhood education and to ask for continued support of young children in Harnett County.

“The Harnett County Partnership for Children (HCPC) is committed to ensuring that all local children have access to the early care and education, family support and health services they need to help them succeed in school and in life,” said Lisa Familo, HCPC Executive Director.  “However, while the challenges facing local families continue to grow, the funding that allows Smart Start to serve families is in jeopardy and additional cuts are on the horizon. Today’s meeting was to help Representative Lewis better understand the needs in our community and to see that Smart Start is a key piece to our community. Today’s children are North Carolina’s future leaders, parents and workers. Our state’s prosperity depends on their healthy development and growth.”

Representative Lewis pledged his commitment to protect early care and education for North Carolina’s children by signing a Children’s Pledge provided by HCPC. By signing this pledge, Rep. Lewis acknowledged that North Carolina’s prosperity depends on our ability to ensure that all children have the opportunity to develop intellectually, socially and emotionally. Furthermore, Representative Lewis agreed that ensuring access to high quality early childhood care and education programs needs to be a top priority for the state.

 Harnett Central Middle Schools Builders Club assisted the Harnett County Partnership for Children (HCPC), a Smart Start Agency, with their third annual Book Drive, as part of HCPC’s Week of the Young Child celebration. The club members and club advisors collected gently used books to be donated to HCPC to benefit young children in Harnett County. The Partnership will distribute these books to Harnett County child care centers and Harnett County family home providers through Smart Start Quality Enhancement and donate the remaining books to the Harnett County Library. Builders Club members along with advisors Karen Stephens, Kristi Millican, Emmy McLamb and Lillington Kiwanis President David Stephens, Kyle Bain, Callie Banholzer, Emma Bartlett, Christin Brown, Erica Cantrell, Ashli Carmichael, Claudia Chavez, Brandy Chavez, Mericela Chavez, Marissa Comly, Maya Davis, Zach Hayes, Jordan Jones, Ashlyn Loehman, Brooke Mason, Kimberly McGee, Rebecca Peters, Landon Polinski, Celeste Railey, Collin Raynor, Joey Rollins, Layne Stephens, Madison Turlington, Natalie Wakefield, Armon Williams, and Sarah Wilson.