Good afternoon.

I'm Catherine White, Executive Director of the Neurochale Chamber of Commerce, and I'm pleased to welcome you all to the grand opening and ribbon cutting of the Family Services of Westchester Head Start program here in New Rochelle.

It's a very exciting day.

We're so pleased to welcome them here today to New Rochelle to downtown the Vanguard district, and what a plus for the parents and the children of Neurochell.

So we're just so thrilled they've chosen New Rochelle for this location.

As you can see, many people turned out for the celebration, and I'd like to acknowledge everybody, and I hope I don't skip anyone.

So to begin with, we have Mayor Yudira Ramos Herbert.

We have the County Executive, Ken Jenkins.

We have from Development, we have Jorhaventora, Deputy Commissioner, and Mariana Husafai.

From Westchester County Legislature, we have Terry Clements.

We have Martha Lopez who wears two hats as MWBE Director and City Council Rep for the City of New Rochelle.

As we're in the New Rochelle Downtown bid, of course, we have with us executive director Anne Gold.

We do have some representatives from our officials who couldn't be with us, and we're so grateful that they did come down to say to send their representation.

We have Damian Garcia, he's the Hudson Valley Regional Director for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's office.

And we have Luis Ochoa, who is the New York Senator Shelley Mayor's office representative.

So we're thrilled to have them.

From Family Services of Westchester, there are so many people, but I would specifically like to acknowledge Lisa Copeland.

She is the chair of the Family Services of Westchester Board of Directors.

We also have with us in no particular order, Chris Chris Queamy, Latonia O'Neill, Sarah Tavares, Andrea Rogiro, Wendy Armstrong, Joqueen Hall Ramirez, Kathy Hollis, and of course the rest of the outstanding family services of Westchester staff.

And always here to support NRPD with us.

So we love to see them.

We know the kids are going to be safe when they're here in the building and safe when they're in the downtown.

So we're thrilled to have them with us as well.

So to start things off, I'd like to call up Mayor Yudira Ramos Herbert for a few words of welcome.

Thank you, Catherine.

You know, aside from Mayor, my favorite title is mom.

And while I have a 15 and a 12-year-old who still need quite a bit more attention than you might realize, um, as someone who's always been a full-time working mom at different times commuting to the city, like quality child care that is close to where you live, where you drop your kids off with that sense of relief that they're gonna be cared for and nurtured and grow, is just something that I'll never you I still get emotional when I think about it.

So when this came on the agenda as something to attend, it was a no-brainer for me to come and provide support.

I just spent a few minutes with some of my youngest and no shade here to cutest constituents uh just next door.

They're all about this high.

They were just coming off a nap and eating snacks, so vibes were immaculate, um, bilingual, and we were just chatting it up.

There was music dancing, painting, and some letter learning.

So, you know, think of it.

Our kids are like that, they're just the heart of our community, they're the future of our community.

Kids know when they're loved, kids know when they're protected, and institutions like this provide that.

And then sorry, I'm ranting, but we're in the downtown.

We think of buildings and we talk a lot about the buildings and the vertical, but these kinds of institutions provide the community that support the people that are moving here.

So the fact that it's literally right here adjacent to some of our best projects.

It's it's just a beautiful sign of the future of New Rochelle and how we're caring for our future, literally while building our future.

So congrats.

Thank you so much, Mayor.

And now I'd like to bring up County Executive Ken Jenkins.

Well, well, thank you, Catherine, and it's certainly another honor and privilege to be here.

Um, I didn't get the chance to see the cutest residents, uh, you know, constituents here in New Rochelle, but but again, for the family service of Westchester, this is an outstanding opportunity, early childhood center.

Again, as the mayor pointed out, um, all of us have those child care needs if we have children or guardians, etc.

And certainly in this area, it's very important to do that.

And when you have a licensed nurturing institutions, it makes more things possible.

So again, congratulations to all of you.

I know we're working so hard with our state legislators and our governor to try to see if we can get Westchester into the 20 million dollar mix to be able to add more things to our Westchester Works program, and we're looking forward to doing that with all of you.

Congratulations, this is so exciting.

Thank you, County Executive.

And now I'd like to bring up Ann Gold from the New Rochelle Downtown Business BID, Business Improvement District.

Thanks, Catherine.

I'm so thrilled to be here and to welcome Family Services of Westchester and the Head Start program to the downtown on behalf of the Business Improvement District.

It's such a tremendous joy to see this investment in children and family support because when we invest in the children, it's not just the individual child that gets elevated, it's the entire community.

So thank you so much for being here, and we look forward to working really closely with you.

Thank you, Ann.

So it's been a long time in putting this together, and you know, the chamber and uh Mariana from uh the development office.

We've worked so many with so many people here.

Um, you know, Wendy, Kathy Hilales, Chris, to put this together.

But to come up and speak for Family Services of Westchester, we now have Lisa Copeland, she's the chairman.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This is such an exciting day for all of us.

Um, first of all, I just want to thank Catherine White, whose leadership and partnership made this happen.

So thank you so much.

This could not have happened without you.

Um, I also want to thank everyone on the team at Open Door and Family Services of Westchester, from those of us for those of you here who are family advocates, facilities, operations, teachers, directors, um, just every single person worked to make this the kind of place which you know is safe and nurturing and warm and the place where any one of us would feel happy to have our own children taught and cared for.

Um, so um thank you all.

Um we're also very grateful today to have two representatives from junior leagues in Westchester County, junior league of Westchester on the Sound and Junior League of Central Westchester, both of whom have contributed in different ways to Head Start programs across the county.

And um, Westchester on the Sound, I know made a grant for the speech room here at this facility, and um Central Westchester has been sending volunteers to read with children uh for many years.

So um thank you for being here.

Definitely round of applause for that.

Um, we also are just really grateful to the elected officials, the agency partners, uh the funders, the community leaders.

Um, this is such a team effort, and it just means the world to us.

We could not do this without your support.

Um, so you know, today is a really important milestone and an achievement, but um I think it's also we we should be reminded of the work that's still yet to be done because unfortunately there are just not as many um children that are able to be enrolled in our um programs as we would like.

Um across New York State, um, only nine percent in 2024, only nine percent of eligible Head Start students, and something like 20% of uh Head Start students were enrolled in programs.

So we really want to expand access.

It's a huge goal of ours, and with all of us working together, um we feel like we can make that happen.

So um really looking forward to working together as time goes on, and thank you all again for being here today.

Anne, don't just want to stay here for a moment, Anne?

Okay.

Oh, so uh the Chamber of Commerce just has a little certificate of recognition that we'd like to give to you to represent everyone here from Family Services of Westchester.

We appreciate everything you've done here and we'll continue to do.

Thank you.

Okay, so uh we're just about ready to uh cut a ribbon, but I would like to just point out, as Lisa said, how important it is to get our kids enrolled.

You can still enroll in this program.

They are there is open registration now.

So anyone who's watching or listening, uh there are contact information on the social media for the chamber about this event and on the Family Services of Westchester uh website.

And if anyone needs any information, you can reach out and call them, they'll totally give you all the guidance you need to get your children enrolled now or maybe even for next school year.

But this is an awesome role location, so why not have your kids go to something that's close to where you live?

So with that, let's cut a ribbon.

Two, one of those.