Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 26, 1992 TAG: 9203260386
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Since then, she has gone from mother with children in the program to volunteer helper to teaching assistant. She's now the lead teacher and in charge of the Head Start program at the Child Development Center in Salem, operating in the old Norfolk and Western Railroad passenger station.
Even though she is in charge of the program, Trent works along with the other adults - cleaning up the kitchen after the children leave for the day, or any other duties.
"My children got me into this," she said, with obvious pleasure.
She has four sons, the youngest now 13 and in the seventh grade at Ruffner Middle School.
Since being introduced to the program, Trent has become one of Head Start's enthusiastic cheerleaders.
"This is a very good program," she said. "It really meets the need of the child and the parent."
Most of Trent's career with Head Start has been in Roanoke. She was at the Our Lady of Nazareth Catholic Church's center for many years but also has worked at other centers.
She is beginning her fifth year at the center in the old passenger station.
The station was given to Salem after the railroad had no further use for it. Salem then leased it to TAP, and the day care center opened there in 1967.
Trent said she remembers riding passenger trains that stopped at the Salem station. She never thought that one day she would be in charge of a day-care center at the station.
But she said the building is ideally suited for child care.
The waiting room and baggage room have become two classrooms. The ticket agent's office is the kitchen and part of the grounds outside is a playground.
"This is such a good atmosphere," she said of the station. "It's a friendly atmosphere as well as a learning experience."
The program has 41 children, all from low-income families, most of whom live in Salem. Most of the children are 3 or 4 years of age.
Part of the program, Trent said, is to make sure the children have proper nutrition and medical care. There are regular visits to doctors and dentists. The center's staff also is on the lookout for other problems, such as emotional or financial ones, and children or parents are referred to specialists if needed.
Trent said the program attempts to teach children and their parents "to reach for higher objectives and don't just stay at the bottom."
Trent said the children are taken into the program at no cost and the center gets its money through TAP. Everything else comes through volunteers and donations.
The Salem center has five paid staff members and a number of loyal volunteers, who Trent says, "We couldn't do it without.
"Parents of the children here are active participants, too," she said, noting that that was the way she got started in the program.
The center usually closes in the summer, but Trent said an anonymous donor has given money for a summer camp. She plans to organize a camp, and she will need volunteers to help with that, she said.
Trent, 43 and divorced, was born in Roanoke and still lives there.
She is a graduate of Lucy Addison High School and worked briefly at Roanoke Memorial Hospital when she was a teen-ager. Other than that, the Head Start program is the only job she's ever had.
While Trent gives high praise to her staff and volunteers, she gives much credit to someone else.
"I keep God in my life," she said. "God has made it possible for me to grow spiritually and physically."
She is an active member of Bibleway Pentecostal Apostolic Church of Christ in Roanoke.
And there, too, children occupy her time. She is a Sunday School teacher for preschoolers.
But Trent does not spend all of her time with children. Through her church she is a volunteer in a program to aid elderly people.
"I try to help them wherever I can," she said.
by CNB