Director Patty Tate retires from First United Methodist Church preschool after 23 years

WINTER GARDEN — When Patty Tate graduated from an all-girls high school in 1968, she and her classmates sang the Prayer of St. Francis: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.” Her dream was to be able to serve God every day, and that opportunity came in 1992, when Tate was asked to start a preschool program at the First United Methodist Church of Winter Garden.

Twenty-three years later, she is getting ready to retire from her director’s position at the FUMC Learning Center. Her last day will be bittersweet as she says good-bye to days of sticky hands, eager little minds and smiling faces.

About 600 preschoolers 4 and younger have been influenced by Tate’s patient demeanor and nurturing presence. She taught classes, too, for many years before leaving the classroom to focus on her duties as director.

In the school’s early days, 20 children were split into two groups, each with a teacher and an assistant, and attended two mornings a week. Today, there are three voluntary pre-kindergarten classes for 4-year-olds, two classes for 3-year-olds, two 2-year-old classes and a Mom’s Morning Out program for children 10 months to 2 years.

“Our philosophy has stayed the same — hands-on learning, giving them as many difference experiences as possible,” Tate said. “I appreciate the chance to change lives. … You have to look at each child and see what their needs are.”

There is always excitement at the preschool, whether it’s art or music time, field-trip day, Dads’ Dessert Night, the Mothers’ Tea or the graduation program. Christmas is a special time, because the children can participate in the annual Winter Garden parade and their parents can join them.

“It keeps you young being around young moms,” Tate said.

One of her favorite preschool stories took place at Christmastime, she said.

The children helped decorate a giant gingerbread man before going outside to play. When they went back in, he had disappeared, so they searched the church grounds. When they asked the director if she saw had seen him, she told them she saw him run by the door.

One little girl very seriously asked, “Did he have a pan on his back?”

SAYING GOODBYE

Tate admitted it will be hard to step down. She will miss her Methodist family and Pastor Rusty Belcher. She will miss holding chapel time in the sanctuary with the children, talking about the church and what’s inside — the stained-glass windows, the organ, the cross-stitched kneeling pads. 

But she knows the preschool will be in capable hands when Wendy Davis becomes the new director. Davis has been a teacher there for 16 years and has been serving as assistant director; her daughter was in Tate’s first class.

Patty Tate’s husband, Bob, retired last year, so the two want to take beach trips and travel to St. Louis, where she has family, and to San Francisco.

A friend is going to make a quilt from all of Tate’s Learning Center T-shirts, so no matter where she goes, the families at The Learning Center won’t be too far from her mind — or her heart.  

Patty Tate Day

Former students and their families are invited to celebrate Patty Tate’s retirement from the First United Methodist Learning Center preschool on Sunday, May 31. She will be recognized in the 11:15 a.m. worship service, and a reception will take place afterward in the Fellowship Hall. 

The staff is collecting congratulatory notes and special memories. RSVP and email notes to [email protected]. The church is at 125 N. Lakeview Ave., Winter Garden.

—

Contact Amy Quesinberry Rhode at [email protected].