The Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation awarded St. Francis Healthcare Foundation of Hawaii $100,000 last month for the completion of the St. Francis Preschool at the St. Francis Intergenerational Center on 1.25 acres in Ewa Villages.
The gift follows another grant the foundation gave St. Francis of $50,000.
Sister of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities William Marie Eleniki, president of St. Francis Healthcare Foundation, expressed her gratitude for both grants.
The Castle Foundation “recognizes the correlation between early learning and children’s later success in school,” she said.
The executive director and treasurer of the Castle Foundation, Alfred L. Castle, said his organization’s trustees were “impressed with the thoughtful work of the St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii in furthering a successful model of intergenerational learning.”
“We will follow this project with great interest,” he said.
The preschool is scheduled to open at the end of January. It will have four mixed-age classrooms that use Montessori and traditional preschool teaching methods and will have the capacity to serve up to 96 children 3-6 years old.
With the St. Francis Adult Day Center also at the Intergenerational Center, there will be many opportunities for the young and old to share activities, providing enriching opportunities to learn from each other and to foster the well-being of both.
Founded in 1894, The Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation provides resources to improve the quality of early education in Hawaii.