- Associated Press - Tuesday, November 5, 2019

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Long before the Children’s Place cemented its place, there was Mary Gile, an unexpected pregnancy and a burst of inspiration.

It was 1976 and Gile, then 39, had settled into a life: two teenaged children and a steady job as child development consultant. She had dedicated her life to children, personally and professionally. But when her third came along without warning, she braced for an onslaught of social separation and fatigue.

It was then that the idea came along - a better way. Child care should be social, Gile decided. New parents should have community outlets to share advice and tackle problems. Child care professionals should be featured front and center. She picked up the phone and started calling around.

Gile died last month at 83, a major figure in the State House and Concord. But the product of her inspiration still stands: the bright tables and cheery walls of the Children’s Place in Concord.

On Friday, leaders of that organization gathered to remember Gile and embrace the center’s next chapter.

“Mary as the legislator and Mary as the person here - they were one and the same,” said MaryLou Beaver, coordinator of special projects at Waypoint, formerly known as Child and Family Services. “Her heart was around children and families. This to her was one of her babies.”

The Children’s Place is a child care center with social interaction at its core. As envisioned by Gile and the other “founding mothers” of the organization, it’s an all-encompassing facility for full families - short-term day care for the children, parenting lessons and volunteerism for the adults.

Gile was central to the facility’s growth and identity. An ardent advocate for early childhood education and care, she helped solidify some of its early rules: short-term drop-offs only, for instance, and a requirement that parents pitch in their own time.

But the driving motivation in the early years was simple: There was nothing else quite like the Children’s Place. There were no parent support programs offered by the hospital after discharge, no community networks to fall back on. For many parents trying to feel their way, the system just abruptly stopped.

With help from friends, Gile helped keep it going. The facility set up both formal and casual settings for parents to mingle.

“I don’t think there was anything like this model,” said Lori Warner, a board member of the Children’s Place.

Months before her passing, Gile was also key to its next phase. Starting Monday, the organization will come under the control of Waypoint, a statewide, children’s nonprofit, under a restructuring shepherded, in part, by Gile herself.

Under the move, Waypoint will be taking over board management and financial responsibility of the organization - though the Children’s Place will still retain its status as a separate organization.

The transition involves changing the structure of the Children’s Place to a “membership corporation” in which Waypoint is the sole member. That move means Waypoint can use the center as a referral point for any other Waypoint services across the state, said CEO and President Borja Alvarez de Toledo.

But the services already provided by the Children’s Place - from parent training courses to toddler drop-off sessions - will stay the same.

They had to, he and others said. Mary Gile made sure of it.

“She would call us randomly here and just check in,” said Liz Remsen, board chair of the Children’s Place. “And she would have a checklist: Is this going on? What are you guys doing here? When are you doing this? She didn’t skip a beat.”

The former representative was active at all stages of the transition planning, Remson said. Even while ill, she called into meetings, and spoke to board members one on one.

“So this is a little sad,” Remson said of the transition. “It’s a happy sad.”

But her influence over the organization ran deep.

The world of child care has changed over the decades, as shifting job realities increase demand, costs to parents escalate and the salaries of child care providers stay stagnant. The Children’s Place has resolved to meet those challenges, board members said, with flexible hours and a scholarship fund to broaden access.

But whatever the conditions, Gile followed the same principles from the start to the end, Children’s Place members said. Open the center’s doors to everyone. Value early child care workers as you would teachers.

And one core belief echoed over and over at witness tables in State House hearing rooms: The first three years, for parents, are crucial.

” ’The first few years of life last forever,’ ” said Warner. “That was sort of her theme.”

It was a gut belief that Mary stuck to - and that research has only validated.

“She walked the walk,” said Celia Goyette, another board member. “She didn’t just talk the talk.”

“She was so ahead of the time,” said Sarah Sadowski, a board member, whose own children rose through the Children’s Place. “We know now how much neural development is happening. It’s such a rich period for children.”

As the Children’s Place has expanded, it’s moved locations, changed policies, opened itself to new programs and weathered decades of financial setbacks. And Gile herself jumped around, taking on a range of roles - as an educator at New Hampshire Technical Institute, a kindergarten teacher and a legislator. But in recent years, she always found time for the center on Burns Avenue, center officials said.

“She would never let us give up,” said Pam Young, a board member.

Online: https://bit.ly/2NAdYaG

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Information from: Concord Monitor, http://www.concordmonitor.com

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