Celebrating 25 years of Caboolture community kindy

C&K Caboolture Community Kindergarten will next month celebrate 25 years of caring for and educating children from the area.

Current and past families are invited to attend to celebrate the occasion, on Tuesday October 19, with morning tea and a cake cutting ceremony.

The ceremony is being timed to coincide with the first kindy class taught back in 1996.

A Welcome to Country will be performed by a local Gubbi Gubbi elder and long-time supporter of the Kindy, Terry Young, the Federal Member for Longman, has been invited.

Local Kabi Kabi/Gubbi Gubbi woman Lillian Beezley, has been a teacher and director at the Kindy for 17 years.

Second home

“Caboolture Community Kindergarten feels like my second home. I have seen some amazing changes take place during this time and I am so proud to be a part of it.” she said.

In that time, she has taught not just every sibling in many families, but now two generations of some local families.

“This year I am proud to say that we have a dad, Keith, who was a kindy child here in 2002 and has now enrolled his son,” Lillian said.

“We also have Ke-Ara, a mum who attended as a child in 1998, whose son, Rakeem, now loves the Kindy.”

Long-time parent Alyssa Harkins has sent all five of her children to the kindy.

Sense of community

“My oldest is now in high school and youngest in the current kindy class. I love the sense of community that comes with being a family here,” she said.

C&K Caboolture Community Kindergarten has come a long way since the kindy was officially opened by John Heron in 1997, but it still retains much of its original charm and features.

“One of my fondest memories is of a little boy whose mum came to enrol him and as he was running through the gate he was yelling, ‘mummy, mummy, they have real grass here!” Lillian said.

“We still have that real grass in our lovely, big, natural playground for children to explore, run, get dirty, use their imaginations and learn while they are playing.”

For more information on the morning tea and cake cutting ceremony on October 19, contact: Lillian Beezley, C&K Caboolture Community Kindergarten Director caboolture@candk.asn.au or phone 5499 1588