Impoverished farmworkers in South Florida had no alternative but to take their young children into the fields. A toddler had drowned in an irrigation pit. Others had died under farm machinery. Most spent long days exposed to broiling sun, pesticides, insects and snakes. So a village of Mennonites near Homestead’s Redlands labor camp created a safe haven. They opened two child care centers.

Surprisingly, most of the farmworkers stayed away. So the bewildered Mennonites enlisted Wendell Rollason, an outspoken crusader for immigrant rights in the Miami area. Rollason reached out to the farmworkers. Still, the response remained anemic.

Then an ordinary day in a childcare center became the most pivotal day in the 47-year history of RCMA.

That day, Rollason noticed that two things were momentarily different:

• An unusually large number of immigrant mothers had signed up to volunteer.
• An unusually large number of other immigrant mothers had left their children in the center.

Rollason made the connection: The immigrants would entrust their babies only to caregivers from their own culture. He decided to hire childcare workers from among immigrants, from the fields.

Rollason’s illuminating moment would reshape the futures of countless babies, a thousand or so mothers and RCMA itself. Soon, the little ones would begin filling RCMA childcare centers to capacity. The mothers would find themselves no longer isolated in the fields, but launching new childcare careers, in mainstream society, with lifelong educational opportunities.

New immigrants’ first point of contact with RCMA was someone who had walked in their shoes.

For RCMA, Rollason’s realization was the wellspring of a new business model for straddling multiple cultures. Henceforth, RCMA’s childcare centers and regional offices would be led by a coordinator from the culture of the community served, always backed up by a childcare expert hired for her professional background, regardless of culture.

RCMA’s initial concern – the health and safety of young children – was quickly allayed through good nutrition and health screenings. A new priority emerged: Early childhood education. It has remained at the top of RCMA’s job description ever since.

Same Inspiration, Larger Numbers

From the two childcare centers in Homestead, RCMA has grown today to 71 centers in 21 Florida counties. All serve the rural poor, and most serve the children of Hispanic immigrants. During the 2011-2012 school year, RCMA’s 7,500 children were 86 percent Hispanic and 11 percent African-American. Government grants comprised 85 percent of RCMA’s $58 million annual bud Over the years, RCMA has broadened the range of its programs. Our Early Head Start centers accept infants as young as six weeks. Our after-school programs serve children ages 6 to 16.

In 2000, we opened charter schools in Immokalee, southeast of Fort Myers, and Wimauma, south of Tampa. In 2012, we added a charter middle school on the Wimauma campus. Together, the two Wimauma schools serve grades K-7. The Immokalee school serves grades K-6.

Despite all these changes over four decades, Wendell Rollason’s inspired personnel policy still affects RCMA – and the people we serve – profoundly.