PHOTO COURTESY OF OPPORTUNITY EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION & FAMILY CENTER

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Preschoolers from Opportunity Early Childhood Education & Family Center put on their hard hats and walked onto the construction site on Westgate Avenue.

The four and five-year-old students pressed their painted hands on the concrete walls of their soon-to-be new school. As the building goes up, the colorful little handprints will serve as a reminder that the finished school will help to build a better future for low-income children in our community.

Palm Beach’s oldest children’s charity has more than 500 children waiting to enroll in its early education programs. The new, 22,000-square-foot campus will allow Opportunity to triple the number of under-resourced children and families it currently serves. The center’s mission is to empower the children of working families to achieve academic and life success through educational programs that embrace the whole child, and through family programming.