For decades, Morrow Memorial Preschool in Maplewood has been a co-operative — meaning parents of enrolled students take turns spending time in the classroom supporting teachers and helping children.
Now Morrow has expanded to include grandparents — and you don’t need to have a familial relationship with the preschoolers, though grandparents of students are welcome.
Preschool Director Cynthia Hicks said that the idea came from a story she saw where a preschool and senior center were sharing space. “It was good for the kids to interact with older adults. But it was also really good for the older adults who were there. So we decided to do this, offer it to the community.”
The Adopt-a-Grandparent Program at Morrow has increased the special sense of community at the preschool, and it’s hard to tell who is benefiting from the program more, the tiny tots or the smiling seniors.
‘The children call be Grandma Trina’
Retired teacher and former President of the New Jersey Education Kindergarten Association Trina Pietz lives an extraordinarily active senior life — singing with the St. Joseph Church choir (after 50 years with the Sweet Adelines) and enjoying travel — but she jumped at the chance to be a Morrow Grandparent when the opportunity was advertised to the Maplewood Seniors Group. Pietz noted, “Children could be with older grownups now that many families live far from each other and kids don’t get to be with older folk like it was when I was young!”
“I attended a meeting with Cynthia Hicks with a group of grandparent volunteers one day and we visited all the classrooms in session. I was thrilled that the classrooms were beautiful, revealing what the kids were learning displayed in the classrooms and the children didn’t mind one bit having all of us visitors taking a tour,” continued Pietz.
Pietz was “thrilled” that Morrow “then and now supported pretty much what kindergarten should be like.” She was also excited to share the many “timeless” children’s books she has collected over the years and is still collecting “provided that they have beautiful illustrations and good stories to tell and learn about.”
Grandma Trina in Mrs. Gray’s and Mrs. McCarthy’s Kinderbridge classroom.
Each week, Pietz spends part of a morning in Mrs. Gray and Mrs. McCarthy’s Kinderbridge classroom (for five-year-olds that didn’t make the Oct. 1 cutoff for public kindergarten). “The class size is deliciously smaller than I ever had teaching kindergarten,” she relates.
“When I arrive during their play time, I roam around seeing what everyone’s doing going from one play area to another, talking with them and supporting their creations, helping out, giving approval, and making a suggestion here and there.” Pietz also leads projects like helping the students make “home-made applesauce prior to Thanksgiving with them and it tastes a lot more yummy than when you buy it in a jar or a can!”
“I just enjoy putting my fingers in the ‘early childhood pie’,” says Pietz. “I surely love being their adopted Grandma Trina when every day there’s always a new surprise waiting. It’s sure a WONDERFUL LIFE doing the things you really love to do!”
Grandma Martha
In teacher Terrie Brodie’s classroom of 2s and 3s, Martha Deephanphongs is “really enjoying being with the children at Morrow Preschool.” The former New York Public Library librarian — working in the NYPL system for more than 30 years — “missed both the children and sharing children’s books once I retired.”
“Trina told me about the grandparent program she was participating in,” said Deephanphongs, “and mentioned that they were currently looking for seniors to participate.”
In her first year with the program, Deephanphongs said, “It’s such fun being Grandma Martha. The kids are delightful and so much fun to be with. I love reading to them and chatting with them.” She also enjoys working with Brodie: “She’s wonderful!”
Grandma Martha
Grandpa Dave Tessier
Dave Tessier is one of two “Grandpa Daves” in the program; he helps out in Mrs. Hicks 2.5/3 multi-age class.
“This is my first year,” said Tessier, who came to the program through his membership in Morrow Church. “I volunteer at the church and at the preschool. I went to a meeting this summer and said, ‘This sounds like fun.'”
Not originally from New Jersey, Tessier has had a varied and travelled background. He was a chief deputy clerk of court in Iowa; he served as an executive director of a nonprofit; he ran his own coffeehouse business; he worked in Walmart’s IT department and human resources in Bentonville, Arkansas; and he did some IT work for the University of Arkansas system.
“In 2021, I found out I had Parkinson’s and I retired,” said Tessier. “I moved to Cape Cod and then here eventually to Maplewood” to be near his daughter and her family.
His daughter is on the MMPS Board and his grandchildren — Charlie, who is turning 5, and Maddie, who is 2-1/2 — are in the preschool, but “the rule is that you can’t be in your grandkids class.”
Nonetheless, “It’s the best day of the week,” says Tessier. “I just really enjoy the kids. I think they really enjoy me. They run to me when I arrive.”
“It’s really funny how much at a young age the personalities are already there. You get to see that.”
Even with his Parkinson’s, Tessier says the children don’t skip a beat. “The kids don’t ask me about it, which is nice. I’m a little slower. A little shaky. They just accept me for who I am.”
“I usually have 5 or 6 kids surrounding me. It’s really a lot of fun. I know I’m getting a lot out of it. I hope I’m providing as much as I’m getting.”
Grandpa Dave Tessier
Grandma Nancy Denholtz
Nancy Denholtz worked for decades on the publishing side of the magazine business.After retiring about 9 years ago. Denholtz said it was an adjustment. “When you retire you have to find a way to be with people.”
Besides taking numerous classes to connect and stay busy, she started as a Morrow Grandparent volunteer in early October 2024.
“I had a friend who told me about it and I went to the orientation meeting and here I am!” said Denholtz. “It’s really one of the highlights of my week, and I so look forward to it.”
Denholtz lives in Maplewood where she raised her children— now ages 39 and 36. The kids have moved, and her two grandchildren, ages 8 and 2, are in Boston with their parents.
Denholtz helps out in Mrs. Brownell’s 2.5 class.
“It’s a great age. It’s such a cute age.”
“The projects that they do are so clever and creative. Today is fish day,” Denholtz told Village Green, as she help a tangle of tots catch fish with magnets and then paint pictures of fish.
“During Hurricane Sandy, we didn’t have any power for 12 days, and Morrow Church was so welcoming. They cooked for us. I feel like this is my way of giving back a little bit,” said Denholtz.
“They really encourage a lot of independence for the children,” she said. “Let them try to do things themselves. I think I was always in a rush with my own kids.”
Nancy Denholtz in Mrs. Brownell’s class.
For their part the teachers love what the grandparents are bringing to the classrooms.
Teacher Nancy O’Connell works with Grandpa Dave Dubela who works as a substitute teacher in the Millburn public preschools and is a retired New Jersey state trooper.
“He’s so laid back and does magic tricks for the kids. He has a very funny sense of humor. The kids love him,” said O’Connell. “He always brings something — a book, artifacts, a box of rocks and fossils, a cattail. We’re like, ‘You don’t have to bring all that.’ But he brings that stuff —which they love!'”
“I think it’s wonderful,” said Teacher Yesenia Santana Brownell about the Adopt-a-Grandparent Program. “It’s great to have an intergenerational program. I have fond memories of my grandfather, my grandmother. It s just a different experience and a different kind of love and connection. A lot of our kids obviously have their grandparents but to have that in our school and in the classroom, it’s just wonderful.”
Dave Dubela, David Tessier, Barbara Illingworth, Trina Pietz, Nancy Denholtz and Martha Deephanphongs
