We can never honor and support our essential workers enough during the Covid-19 outbreak. They continued to be, as the idiom goes, our knights in shining armor.

Those employed to provide essential services in medicine, food, and law enforcement; just to name a few, were deployed immediately to the front lines of the battlefield on day one of noticing the virus’s imminent threat of death to the entire American population and its people’s normal way of life.

Those aforementioned essential fields of employment who are trained to serve non-essential workers continue to bear the brunt of the pandemic, while those they serve were offered remote employment options at home where the level of safety from the virus is at the highest.

The result………….

Intensive care units are at their capacity throughout the country and one could only imagine how much worse it could be without those who run America’s daycare centers, who care for children of those who are expected to go out to their job of employment, every day.

“I am glad you made that point because I definitely believe that I am and all other daycare providers and their staff are essential workers,” said Annie Brown, owner of Love Horizon Daycare. “It is very important for children in many ways at this stage in life, so I decided to keep my daycare open during this time to make sure our children continue to get what they need to become productive, develop properly and be loved,” she said.

Some of the things I like to do with my kids during the day is reading to them.

“When George Floyd was brutally murdered in front of the world, I was really going in hard with the kids, teaching them about Martin Luther King Jr., and some of the many things we went through,” Brown continued. “One of our favorite books right now we are reading is called, ‘We March by Shane W. Evans’ that chronicles a remarkable event that took place on August 28, 1963, when more than 250,000 people gathered in our nation's capital to participate in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,” she pointed out. “And it is amazing to me, how the kids sparked up, when they see Martin Luther King’s face. They know who he is. So that is one of the things. I am teaching them to know who we are as Black people.

“And I would also like to shout- nothing but love- out to all of Rochester’s daycare providers and their staff to keep pouring into the children. Keep loving them and stay safe, keep the children safe and continue to do your business because that is what we are here for,” Brown said.

Love Horizon Daycare, we are giving out a lot of love!

Article by Rodney Brown, executive director of Brown Publishing LLC and Southwest Tribune Newspaper