I'm always amazed when people sit around talk about “ideas” and then those “ideas” become reality. That's exactly what happened four years ago when Elizabeth Hurley, Nancy Tehan and I started talking about the need for providing information to the community about the needs of young children.

Hurley, the director of the ACC/CCC Alumni Association, wanted to use her resources to help support community outreach. Tehan, the coordinator of Success By 6 in Cayuga County, wanted to promote awareness about the need to provide experiences to facilitate school readiness, and I wanted to provide training opportunities for professionals working with young children. Lo and behold, the “Growing Together Early Childhood Conference” was born.

OK, we had a name -- now what should we do? Who should our audience be? We thought it was important to encourage everyone who “cared about young children” to come to the conference #-not just early childhood professionals, but also parents, grandparents, social workers, therapists, etc.

We brainstormed ways to reach all these people and created a huge mailing list. In order to reach as many people on the list as possible, we needed to keep the cost low. We solicited the support of community groups and organizations and before we knew it, we had “start-up” funding. Hurley and I went to the president of the college (who at the time was Dr. Dennis Golladay), and he graciously offered the college's support by providing physical space for the conference. Tehan went to Jim Donley, the founder of the Seanna M. Donley Memorial Fund, who enthusiastically gave funds for the printing and mailing of registration materials.

So, we had a name, a date, a location and some seed money - now we needed workshop topics and workshop presenters. We brainstormed, asked everyone we could think of for ideas and even looked at brochures from other conferences across the state. We came up with a two-page list of topics, narrowed the list down to 16 workshops and contacted presenters (who would work for free).

Finally, after months of planning, the brochures were mailed to more than 875 individuals and countless organizations and agencies (to distribute brochures and cut-down on mailing costs). Brochures were distributed to child care centers, family child care providers, CCC and Cortland early childhood students, preschools, elementary schools and social services agencies.

Now the waiting began - would people come? Would our “idea” come to fruition? We checked the mail each day and slowly, but surely, the registrations came in. By the registration deadline, we had received 121 registrations.

Our “good idea” became a reality. The first “Growing Together” Conference took place Oct. 19, 2003, and was quite a success. We received only positive feedback from the participants; everyone enjoyed the workshops and the opportunity to network with others interested in early childhood education. Everyone wanted to attend again #- the conference would be an annual event - and the rest is history.

The conference is now in its fifth year and is sponsored not only by CCC, Success By 6 and the Seanna M. Donley Memorial Fund, but by the SAEYC (Syracuse Association for the Education of Young Children), the CCHHS (Cayuga County Health & Human Services) Early Intervention Program and the Childcare Council of the Finger Lakes.

Conference attendance continues to increase each year as do the number of workshops. A book sale was added to the conference a few years ago in an effort to provide participants the opportunity to purchase quality books for young children. In addition, community organizations are invited to set up display tables and distribute information #- this serves as another way to get information about programs and services to those working with young children.

Topics this year include: Teaching Kindness, Let's Get Messy and Baby Signing.

Patricia Gridley, Ph.D., is an associate professor and the coordinator of the Early Childhood program at Cayuga Community College.

If you go

What: “Growing Together”

When: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 14

Where: Cayuga Community College, Franklin Street, Auburn

Cost: $15; which includes lunch

To register: Call Nancy Tehan at 255-2746; registration deadline is today and no walk-in registration is available.