“It all goes back to when Fun Time was in the yellow trailer,” Cester Williams remembers fondly. Hired in 1984, she is Fun Time’s longest serving employee!
Now a classroom teacher in Room 1, Ms. Cester has loved caring for children since she herself was young, babysitting for her mother’s friends at an early age. A caring person, she remembers being taught the importance of patience, a needed attribute when working with the little ones.
Cester’s first job at Fun Time was as an assistant with the tiniest students. “When I tell you I was super happy to work with those babies, I knew then that’s where I needed to be. For about 25 years, I worked with infants and toddlers.” Eventually, Ms. Cester moved on to working with the older toddlers. It would seem that this would be a natural progression, but apparently it was a little more than that.
“I didn’t have a choice!” she laughs, “I decided to move to Georgia for eight months, but that didn’t go well. I was working there with young toddlers.” Upon returning to Naples and Fun Time, the only position open was in a preschool classroom. Knowing full well the challenges that lay ahead with this group of children, she is still thankful today for the guidance she got from her coworker.
“She taught me a lot. I’m still learning,” Cester says. Even in that cramped yellow trailer all those years ago, she remembers that the teaching atmosphere was special. These days, she comes to work knowing she can make a difference, especially when parents share how much they appreciate both her teaching ability and her caring nature.
In our current, more technologically advanced facility, Cester is confident that the children have an opportunity to advance even further.
She provides one last thought: “Pray and keep God first and all things with fall into place.”
