I went to Catholic school. Enough said.
No, no…I guess there is more to the story.
Truth is, I cherish those childhood memories. I was lucky to have a strong women to look up to and a safe place to grow up. I remember all my care givers and educators…and maybe, Sister Theresa the most. Looking back, she was tough as nails but had the biggest heart.
Sister Theresa had many lessons for me:
· Take pride in your appearance and be your own person
· Dream big and don’t be afraid of nay sayers
· Do unto others as you would have done to you
and…..
· If at first you don’t succeed…try, try, try again.
That last lesson came in especially handy when attempting to schedule with a childcare provider during the onset of the Covid pandemic.
Childcare providers were either shut down completely or adhering to the strictest regulations and so, not many wanted to have anything to do with a film company looking to invade their space!
So, I kept trying…and trying. And eventually it led me to the founders of Myers Prouty Children’s Campuses….Sister Theresa would be proud!
After a couple emails, phone calls, and Zoom calls outlining what we were looking to do, we got the green light and were all set for filming from a distance.
No sooner had we cleaned our gear, checked our health status, wiped down ‘Dodgey’ and prepped for our shoot did we get an email stating the shoot had been cancelled!
New regulations had come out that were preventing us to even enter the premises. Not that I could argue with safety measures, but it seemed like there might not be a way to get this part of the story other than by Zoom, which I was certainly getting tired of!
(Like, whatever happened to Skype?)
But…I was ‘dreaming big’ so, we tried and tried again. Finally, we were able to come up with a solution. The campus was closing for a week and we would be able to enter and film prior to them doing their deep clean. So, once again we cleaned our gear, checked our health status, wiped down ‘Dodgey’ and prepped for our shoot.
After weeks of preparing, we finally set off to Bennington to one of the several campuses of Myers Prouty CC. We were greeted by Jackie Myers and Michelle Prouty who showed us the ropes of “childcare during a pandemic”.
Empty halls, classrooms and cubbies became our backdrop. Students’ pictures on the wall and shelves of neatly organized toys were counter balanced with timers to wash hands, masks and hand sanitizer at every turn.
As we grabbed some insert shots and did our interview from afar, my mind could not help but flash back to Sister Theresa and the time she scolded us as a class for not working together.
I thought, “Sister Theresa would be proud of the community in Vermont that is getting us all through this!”
After a brief chat with Jackie to find out more about her and what led her to this calling, we began to pack up our gear.
We were hot. We were hungry and dehydrated and had a long drive home in ‘Dodgey’, the sweaty and mechanically challenged van. I was not looking forward to it.
But over all my mind clutter, I could still hear the lesson coming in Loud And Clear….
”Stop. Your. Whining.”
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