Safety and Education at the Ithaca Day Care Center
Tamanii Littles, a 3-year old girl who attends the I.A.C.C. Day Care Center several times a week, was featured last week on the front page article of the Ithaca Journal. On the night of March 31, 2010, Tamanii’s mother was making dinner when she sat down to take a break. Around 1:30 AM, Tammani heard the smoke alarm go off, and she woke up her mom right before the situation could have gotten out of hand.
Tammy Zuccala, executive director of the I.A.C.C., has held this position for the past three years, but has been working with small children for about thirty years. Starting off as an aide, she worked her way up by becoming a substitute teacher, eventually working full time and becoming the director for a child care program in Massachusettes. Now she has found a home in Ithaca, and the recent news of Tammani has brought some new excitement and attention to the daycare center.
“After we saw the article, we had it printed out and distributed to the class to reemphasize the importance of fire safety education,” Zuccala said.
From the fire safety training Tammani learned from the Ithaca Fire Department at the day care center, she was able to recognize the sound of the smoke alarm and react to it accordingly. Fire safety education is mandatory several times, and Lieutenant Roy Trask of the Ithaca Fire Department paid a visit to the day care center not long before Tammani saved her mom’s life on that fateful night.
“This staff has to be educated. Our regulations and laws are much more intense than those in public schools. These teachers work longer hours, they work all year, and they work more intensely because of the regulations they have to follow,” Zuccala said. “Without childhood education at such a young age, the local school systems would be overburdened.”
