I truly have been living a real-life dream come true.

I cannot express how proud and grateful I am for all that has transpired in this past year for our Launch Learning Preschool and families. It has been such a beautiful, hectic, and heartwarming journey.

When Dr. Barbara Young first launched Eastern Florida State College’s Lab School in 1967, the idea of providing parallel educational programs for children and parents was as cutting-edge as those of the space program whose families moved to Brevard County to pursue the dream of landing a man on the moon. The Lab School model proved successful as it thrived over the next 55 years. My mother-in-law, Dr. Gail Buchanan, spent years dedicated to the school and dreamed of giving Lab School a permanent, self-sustaining home base and launch pad for all activity. In pursuit of this dream, Lab School transitioned to its current nonprofit status under its new name, Launch Learning, in 2020.

This past year, the dream finally was realized as we opened our doors in this beautiful new educational facility in the heart of Merritt Island!

Every day is a dream come true as we have been able to welcome our early learners into an enriching environment with an emphasis on play-based learning, social and emotional development, parent education, and community involvement. Our enrolled students, families, and community all benefit from our hands-on curriculum, built on research-based practices using the best available science and teaching techniques. I want to thank everyone involved in helping us arrive at this momentous milestone and achieve the successes of this past year; launching this dream wouldn’t have been possible without the funder, family, staff, and community support we have been showered with this past year.

But this amazing milestone was just the beginning of the journey, as we set our sights higher with new, bigger goals for impacting young lives in the future.

Take a glimpse of the successes over the past quarter…