Former alumni, current students and faculty gathered to celebrate the Cerritos College Child Development Center’s 30th anniversary in the Student Center last Friday..

The center opened in 1966 to help those who were full-time students at Cerritos as well as working parents.

The Morales family was one of 15 families that were in attendance.

Mario Morales, Cerritos College senior electronic system technician, had both his son and daughter in the program.

Now that his son Mario Morales Jr., is a sophomore at California High School, and his daughter Danielle is a Cerritos student.

“What I remember is learning how to paint,” commented the younger Morales.

His sister said she remembered some of the people that came up to them to say that they knew both of them as little kids.

Cyrstal Pintado, child development major, said that it was great to see families come out and celebrate.

“Having families attend means that they care about their own children and the program means a lot to them.” Judy Krause, interim director of CDC, said that the celebration means that the child development program as a whole puts people first and the turnout was awesome and more than what she anticipated.

Child development instructors Lynda Roberts and Ceci Medina have been with the CDC since it opened in 1966.

“There are relationships being built amongst the staff and students,” Roberts said.

One of the important things Medina said is that the staff is still learning and there are always changes happening.

However, for Board Vice President Tom Jackson it was more than just relationships being built that has kept the program going.

“The child development as a whole is servicing the community,” he said.

Among those child development alumni were Kristy Overturf, a kindergarten teacher in Downey, and Nikki Lopez, a director at Tutor Time Elementary School in Lakewood.

“For the Child Development Center to be celebrating its 30 years of service it makes you realize how old you are,” Overturf said.

As she was looking through a photo album she said what she remembers the most is getting her pants dirty.

But Overturf and Lopez also remember Kathy Richards, a former Cerritos College assistant teacher and her kindness toward them.

Richards, was emotional, “it made it all worthwhile because we all keep in contact with each other.”