Photo by Permanent Fund
Early Educator of the Year Award-winner Cheryl “Cookie” Danyow of Addison.
ADDISON | When the Permanent Fund for Vermont’s Children announced the third annual Early Educator of the Year Award last October, recipient Cheryl “Cookie” Danyow of Addison received justified attention statewide. She was honored with the award of Early Educator of the Year.
The Permanent Fund created the Early Educator of the Year Award to recognize and celebrate excellence in the teaching of Vermont’s young children to bring attention to the importance of high-quality care and early education.
“Besides parents, early educators are the first teachers our children have and their work lays an important foundation at the most crucial time of development in our children’s lives,” said Permanent Fund CEO Aly Richards. “By honoring outstanding early educators like Cookie Danyow and Ellen Kraft, we are demonstrating to all Vermonters what high-quality early care and learning looks like.”
At the close of last year, Danyow had been working with children for three decades. Andshe’s worked in a variety of settings–from child centers to homes to schools–before opening her own home-based program, called Mountain Road Preschool, in Addison.
Danyow’s program includes both an indoor and an outdoor classroom; hers is the first and only Nature Explore-certified early care and learning program in Vermont.
“The philosophy of my program is to provide a safe, healthy, hands-on learning environment where children can learn and explore and expand at their own pace,” Danyow said last year. “I feel the most important thing I can do as an early educator is to allow the children to explore their environment safely and to know that they’re loved.”
As the winner, Danyow received a $5,000 award and all expenses paid to the VAEYC conference, along with one national conference.
To be eligible for the annual award, a home-based childcare professional must have had at least four stars in the Vermont Step Ahead Recognition System (STARS), the state’s voluntary recognition and improvement system for early care and learning programs. Nominees must also have been providing care for at least three years, and must serve children age birth to five years of age.
Founded in 2000 by philanthropists Rick Davis and Carl Ferenbach, the Permanent Fund works to improve the quality of Vermont’s early care and learning system.
