Rainbow Garden Christian Pre-School (Safety Harbor, FL) Closing After 29 Years

When we first got to Tampa, we needed to find a church, a swimming pool, and a pre-school.  We landed on the community of Westchase, Florida because of their awesome community pools.  We found Bayside Church in Safety Harbor and quickly determined that the preacher, Pastor Terry Rolen, was put into our lives by God during a window where we needed to return to faith.  Inside of Bayside Church, we found the Rainbow Garden Preschool, a separate business leasing space from the church.  After looking around at other options, we enrolled our youngest in the Rainbow Garden Preschool.

During her time at the Rainbow Garden, our littlest one learned fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic.  She also learned about God, the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob.  They came alongside our family with just the right mix of academics, love, and spirituality.  They perfectly guided our littlest through the pre-school years with amazing teachers, an amazing facility, and intersectionality that sometimes is lost in the for-profit world of pre-school.  Rainbow Garden was a blessing to our family.

It was with sadness that I learned that when they close their doors this year, they'll be closing them permanently.  Rather than dwell on the downside of shifting educational goals of today's society, we from Tidings will pay tribute to what Rainbow Garden was.  

The Rainbow Garden provided an excellent learning and loving environment for young children.

They welcomed families to be a part their our community preschool family. They were intentional with hope involvement in the program would enrich parents, families and our community. They invested in us.

They were a Christian Preschool Program. They were first established as a ministry of Community Presbyterian Church in September 1994, as a Mom's Morning Out Program. In September 1995 the program grew to include a 2, 3 and 4 year-old preschool program. In July 1998 The Rainbow Garden was established as an independent non-profit Christian organization.

Their experienced teachers nurtured kids with Christian principles that provided a solid foundation and prepared the young child for future academic school years. Their program admitted children of any race, creed, color, national or ethnic origin and does not discriminate from all the rights, privileges, activities and programs available to all the children of The Rainbow Garden.  When we were there, the majority of families were not from the church, and over half were not professing Christians.  It was a Christian school operating as a community school and serving the whole community without a litmus test for membership.

They did use biblical values to create a loving and supporting environment for all kids and families.

Here's what they set out to do in impacting the lives of kids :

• A Christian based program that fosters the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ.
• Opportunities with other children in a setting conducive to the development of wholesome social relationships.
• Appropriate learning experiences that contribute to the growth and development of the child.
• Moral guidance and practical instruction of Bible truths.
• Preparation for the challenges of the next academic level.

For our family and our child and the thousands of others that darkened their doorstep for the fleeting minutes that the kids are in pre-school, the Rainbow Garden Preschool in Safety Harbor, Florida accomplished what they set out to do.  They produced a firm academic foundation and planted seeds that will be reaping a harvest well beyond the physical walls that once housed this great educational effort.

With gratitude and thanksgiving for the impact they have made on kids throughout the Tampa Bay area, we bid a fond goodbye to the Rainbow Garden Christian Pre-School in Safety Harbor, Florida.