On September 11, 2023, Katy Emond opened her childcare center called The PUMPKIN PATCH in what was The Putney Inn and Restaurant. Three children were enrolled that day. As of early October, 2024, 43 are now enrolled and she now has earned a licensed capacity of 59. These children are from 39 families living in Putney, Dummerston, Brattleboro, Westminster and Bellows Falls. Through sheer force of will this high-powered woman and equally energetic husband Josh Emond have answered the needs of families for childcare, a service that frees those parents to work during the day while also offering their children care and early education.
Katy was born at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital in 1982, the daughter of Terry Kauffman, a dentist living and working on Western Avenue in Brattleboro with his wife Catherine. Katy has two older brothers. Because the family had a second home with an east-facing view on Putney Mountain, she went to Putney Central School for grades 1&2 but after that attended Green Street School in Brattleboro, then Oak Grove and finally to BUHS from which she graduated in 2000.
During her time at BUHS, Bob Kramsky’s theater program caught her attention big time: Jesus Christ, Superstar; Guys and Dolls; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; Annie…. As did the Saxtons River Playhouse and Shakespeare in the Park. “My poor mother had to drive me EVERYWHERE! During my senior year, a national group “Young Americans” performed at BUHS. I wanted to join them and auditioned. I was accepted, so after graduation I went to California. I lived near Los Angeles, where they were centered, for a year and toured with them mostly in California. I did some studies at a Community College while in CA.
“All this time I was also a serious swimmer. I was a certified water safety instructor for young swimmers. While in CA I taught at the Australian Swim School in Santa Ana. In 2002 I went, through the Green Mountain Institute, to a four-month internship to Praia Da Luz, Portugal to train to be a massage therapist. Upon my return I went to Salem State College in Massachusetts from 2002-2005 majoring in English and secondary education. I went on a Study Abroad program through Salem and spent several months studying in Paris.
“After graduation I got a job teaching in Leesburg, Florida for two years where I also coached soccer, running and directed the drama program. That’s when things got serious with my future husband, Josh Emond, also from Brattleboro. My parents loved him and I did too! When I came home from Florida for Thanksgiving in 2008 he proposed and we got married in 2009. I got a job teaching English and drama at Bellows Falls High School and was the drama director there for 14 years. We had a son, Ben, in 2012 and a daughter Emma in 2015 and then in 2021 we had son Charlie just after COVID.
“We five were living in Putney. Josh was a supervisor in the anodizing shop at G&S Precision in Brattleboro and I was a full-time teacher. Childcare and our five schedules were becoming a serious issue. When I was unable to find childcare for Charlie after my maternity leave, I took a year’s leave of absence from Bellows Falls High School – a job I loved. My kid’s needed after-school care; I needed care for Charlie. Josh and I started thinking, “Wouldn’t it be great if we had options for after-school care for our kids or care for Charlie? My future became clear to us both. I would start a center for after-school care that would include early childhood education, with activities for kids. We could put on little plays and plan activities and….” “That’s when Josh started singing, ‘Whatever Katy wants, Katy gets!” He could see where we were headed.
But Katy, being a lifelong serious Catholic, felt she needed a sign of affirmation and direction. As she was imagining her future after-school- care program she was walking on Old Depot Road in Putney and saw a FOR SALE sign on the former Rectory for the local Catholic Church. That was literally The Sign! I started to plan! I would figure out how to raise the money to buy the Rectory. I got on social media and tried to make it fly.
“Friends would ask me where I was going to get the money. I’d answer with complete ignorance and confidence: GRANTS! They asked if I had any grant writing experience. NO, but I’ll learn. I went to six banks for loans to buy the Rectory. None was interested. THEN I learned The Rectory had been sold. OK, what’s the next try?
“After COVID, I learned the town of Putney had some American Rescue Plan Act funds. I started networking with the principal at Putney Central School, Jon Sessions. Reps from The Vermont Council of Rural Development came to town looking to fund three projects to help facilitate projects that would improve life in Putney. Many Putney residents, myself included, felt strongly that we needed to develop a new Community Center space or a reinvestment in and expansion of the current Putney Community Center. This project was one of three selected and I became the Task Force chair for developing a community center. I wrote a proposal for youth services – specifically, outreach for families in need of childcare - and my proposal was picked! I developed a task force to create after-school programming for the town. Then, with the help of some other parents, I wrote and was awarded a two-year grant to develop an after-school program at Putney Central School. In 2022 the school district hired three of us to start a program in an empty classroom at the school.
“And then Josh lost his job at G and S Precision! We had a house, a mortgage, taxes, and three kids - some on a bus for an hour one way to school. I had a short-term job and we had a short-term solution to after-school care. We were entrusted with their lives. These three were the most important people in our lives.
“Josh and I started thinking about a long-term solution to our own childcare problems and those shared by so many others our age in the same situation. I looked around town and considered the largely unused Putney Inn Restaurant building. By August, 2023, with more and more grant applications written, I signed a lease to rent this entire building. With Josh’s carpentry skills, he could help rehab the building, and create a playground and….. I was also working as a swimming instructor at The Putney Pool and as the after-school Programs Director for Putney Central School as well as being the drama director there.”
Katy rarely saw her kids. This writer asked if she slept properly: “SLEEP? What’s that?” She was in overdrive. BUT: “Whatever Katy wants, Katy gets.” On September 11, 2023 her center called Putney Place opened with three kids enrolled. She has five classrooms with two teachers in each. The classrooms are named: “Stars” for teeny babies to 12 months of age; “Moon” is for 12-24 month olds; “Sun” is for 2 year olds; “Sky” for pre-kindergarten, ages 3-4. Then there is an after-school care program for pre-schoolers to grade 4 kids that runs from 3:00 to 5:00.
The curriculum is play-based. Given that drowning is the leading cause of death in two-to-four-year-olds, she has also applied for a grant to start an aquatics program. She engages parents: she has a “Parent’s Date Night” program where parents can drop off their kids for a few hours on certain evenings so they can go see a movie or dinner out in their own or a Christmas Shopping time when parents can drop off their kids to be looked after while they go Christmas shopping.
“And my husband Josh is crucial to all this success. He repairs our rented building – electrical, plumbing….. He built the playground outside and then doubled its space months later to provide a childproofed safe space. Every day he picks our kids up from school, makes dinner when I can’t get home in time and looks after this 250 year old building and…..
“And, anyone can stop by during the morning and afternoon to The Sweet Spot Café, recently opened as a café with comfy chairs, coffee and great baked goods and simple lunches in what used to be the bar at The Putney Inn Restaurant. It is open Monday through Saturday from 7:00 AM to 2:00 PM. The Sweet Spot proceeds help fund the Childcare Center and The Putney Clubhouse.”
Katy Emond remade her life to meet the very needs she, Josh and others in her community had at a similar point in their lives: substantive, meaningful resources to help kids that would in turn help children and families flourish.
This is one of a series of some 30 profiles of working people from southern Vermont and adjacent New Hampshire that I wrote and then published in the Brattleboro Reformer newspaper every Friday from Jan 1 - May 30. Do the same with your local newspaper.