Man's life-changing encounter helps save child-care program

Child Development Inc. might have closed its doors for good had it not been for Eric Schwartz.

The nonprofit child-care center was seven weeks from shutting down when Schwartz, president and founder of Sara Real Estate Investment in Middleton, made a commitment that saved the day. He provided financial and administrative assistance that resulted in a dramatic turnaround.

Child Development Inc., or CDI, gives the working poor, particularly single mothers, a safe place to leave their pre-school-aged children during the workday.

Just over a year ago, CDI was on the brink of collapse serving only 17 low-income children in three Madison locations. Today, CDI centers at 412 S. Balwin St., 2012 Fisher St. and 1819 Aberg Ave. provide early childhood education for more than 80 children up to age 5.

There's a waiting list for new students and administrators are making a concerted effort to establish a fourth location.

But this isn't your typical nonprofit meets wealthy donor success story. Schwartz's involvement with CDI began out of a personal desire to help children in our community get off to the right start. A hard lesson learned in the fall of 2005 prompted him to take direct action.

Life-changing experience

Following a high school boys' basketball game in Waunakee, Schwartz's oldest son Sammy asked him to give a friend a ride home.

"The kid's name was Rakeem. And the minute he got in the car he asked to use my phone," Schwartz said. "After a couple of minutes and few calls it became apparent to me that this kid was challenged as to where he was going to sleep that night."

With no place to go, Rakeem reluctantly asked Schwartz to just drop him off anywhere. He left the boy, 14, in the parking lot of a Walgreen's store on Madison's south side. Schwartz gave him $40.

"On the way home I said, 'Sammy, I'm not real proud of what I just did,' " Schwartz said. "That was the wrong thing to do. We have to go back and find him."

After preparing dinner for his four children, Schwartz took Sammy and went back to the Walgreen's parking lot. They found Rakeem huddled in a bus shelter. Schwartz took him home.

Over the next six months, Rakeem lived with Schwartz and his family. But set in his ways, he had great difficulty shaking the habits acquired through years of fending for himself. He was unwilling to do chores around the house, do his schoolwork or to get a summer job. Rakeem was a smart kid but he just wasn't willing to take the initiative to turn his life around. He finally moved out.

"With all the financial resources my family has and all the love, I could not fix that kid," Schwartz said, choking back tears. "He'd been on the street too long. He's doing it his way, which is way harder. And with no parental authority there was nothing I could do to change that."

Schwartz was frustrated.

"After that failure, I realized that you have to start earlier," he said. "You can't let a kid get to 14. By then it's too late. That's the problem."

Helping other children

It was around that time Schwartz heard about CDI. Since 1965, the childcare organization has had a reputation for preparing children despite their social or financial circumstances for entry to the Madison city school system. With an early dose of education and care, CDI students have the chance to begin their lives from a strong nurturing foundation.

Schwartz and his wife, Sara, had hoped to donate a little cash to help sponsor a few of the neediest kids. But when he approached Steve Lien, the center's executive director, Shwartz discovered that CDI had serious financial difficulties.

"They were hemorrhaging $20,000 a month," he said. "They were blowing through money like crazy."

In February of 2006, CDI was subjected to a drastic reduction in Dane County funded child-care subsidies. That shortage resulted in an increase of co-payments charged to parents. Now required to pay between $5 and $50 a week depending on their income, the poorest families simply could not afford to pay for child care. So they pulled their children out. Enrollment began to dwindle, and with fewer students, county resources began to dry up as well.

CDI's money problem

"From my business acumen I could see that it wasn't a service issue," Schwartz said, "it was simply a money problem. I'm not an educator. I'm a business guy. So I say to them that Sara, my wife, and I will put up all the co-pays."

That initial contribution of high-risk capital, Schwartz said, was the first step in stopping the slide. He committed to donate $40,000 a year plus $20,000 in the three following years. With the co-pays taken care of, the centers' enrollment got a serious boost.

Lien said that Schwartz's donation did the trick.

"He was very bright in how he approached this," Lien said. "Generally, donors will give a chunk of money, and we usually put that into scholarship funds for kids of parents who were going through a child-care need on a short-term basis. But we started eating through that just for operating costs. Pretty soon our scholarship money was gone."

What CDI needed wasn't just cash. Ironically, what made the difference was having more kids to serve. By covering the co-pays Schwartz not only increased enrollment but he also helped bring in more county money with each child. Within a year, CDI was back on track.

"Eric gave us a lot more than a charitable contribution," said CDI development director Anna Purnell. "He helped us get to the point where we're not operating on a shoestring. We want to go beyond that and improve the program."

Schwartz also provides the services of his firm's accountant to manage day-to-day operations and expenditures. "With that," Purnell said, "we can have smart growth, as smart as our redevelopment."

CDI aims to continue its mission of providing high quality preschool education to the underprivileged. Its growth includes the hiring of new teachers who are skilled in the administration of care to children. But center director, Erin Arango-Escalante, wants to make it clear that CDI is not merely a day-care center. It's a school.

"Our teachers are very qualified here. They have a lot of training in early childhood education," Arango-Escalente said. "They really provide a solid education for our kiddos. On going education is huge."

It's this commitment to educating very young children that makes CDI supporters like Schwartz so willing to contribute their time and money. More than anything, he wishes that Rakeem and kids of similar circumstances could have had this kind of program at an early age. As real estate developer, Schwartz understands that you can't build something and expect it to last if it doesn't have proper support from the very beginning.

"Where we cut our teeth was fixing things and not throwing them away. And that's what I think they're doing with kids at CDI," he said. "You look at that 14 year-old kid Rakeem. Let's not throw the kid in the landfill. The kid just needs a good foundation."

James Edward Mills is a Madison freelance writer.