Kauffman to host tonight’s Quality Celebration

Event honors accomplishments of early learning professionals

The 13th annual Quality Celebration will be held tonight, April 22, 2010, at the Kauffman Center, 4801 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, Missouri. The event honors early learning teachers, centers and family home providers who have earned credentials or degrees or achieved national accreditation in the past year. The program will begin at 7 p.m.

Jerry Kitzi, director of the Francis Institute, will serve as the evening's master of ceremonies, and Nefertiti Bruce, M.Ed., early childhood specialist and trainer at the Devereux Foundation in Philadelphia, Pa., will provide the keynote address.

Honorees will include 30 early learning professionals who have earned associate’s, bachelor’s or master’s degrees in the field of early education with assistance from the Mid-America Regional Council’s (MARC’s) Metropolitan Council on Early Learning, and 11 family child care providers who have earned accreditation, or reaccreditation, from the National Association of Family Child Care. Also, 21 regional early learning centers will be honored for achieving state or national reaccreditation.

The Quality Celebration is sponsored by The Family Conservancy, the Francis Institute, Hallmark Cards, Inc., the Mid-America Regional Council’s Metropolitan Council on Early Learning, the Mid-America Association for the Education of Young Children, Partners in Quality, Project Eagle, United Way of Greater Kansas City and Tri-County Smart Start–United Way of Wyandotte County.