The Story of Pied Piper
“Everyone gets maybe one great story in their lifetime; a great love story or an adventure story… but I was lucky enough to have a great story of friendship.”
~Kathy
Kathy and Marsha met 45 years ago at a play group as two young mothers, living in the same neighborhood and looking for something enriching for their one year old children and something social for themselves.
It was not long before they realized how similar they were in their approach to children. They had the same philosophy towards raising their children, the same love for children and for seeing them happy and learning. They both loved being outdoors and spent far more time with the children than with the adults in all social settings.
Kathy had been working as a musician in a symphony and teaching private music lessons, which was a difficult schedule to balance with being a mother. The symphony she played in offered a music in the morning program for parents and children which seemed like something she could do in the morning, have Minnie with her, and still have the afternoons to enjoy as a mother.
Kathy began looking into requirements to run a program like that on her own and thought it might be possible with some help.
At this point her and Marsha had been meeting up multiple mornings a week at the old school across from their houses, with some broken down equipment and one functional bench. Kathy brought her research along with her one morning, proposed the idea to Marsha with the understanding that they could enter into this together as partners. She gave an arbitrary deadline to seem as legitimate and business-like as possible, and luckily Marsha said yes.
The Pied Piper Begins
Now Pied Piper started off small…
Really small…
At the Grace Lutheran Church on Granite Springs road. With 20 total students and Kathy, Marsha, and Kathy’s sister Anita who joined to help establish the program while on leave from her teaching job, raising two children of her own.
But like all good things, it grew and it grew and it grew. They bounced around from quite a few temporary homes… from 1979 in the Grace Lutheran Church to 1980 in Temple Beth Am, to 1988 at Assembly of God, to 1992 in the French Hill School, to 1994 in the Light of the World Church. Each move was made with Marsha’s old station wagon, a lot of hard work from two determined women who carried countless pianos up and down stairs in and out of buildings while their children tagged along to help, and supported by Kathy’s family who were helping every step of the way. All the while, Kathy was hunting for a permanent home for the school. Visiting countless properties all of which fell through or they were turned down for as two women with very little collateral.
In 2002, with a little bit of luck and the help of Kathy’s brother Jerry on the town planning board, Kathy and Marsha purchased a plot of land with an old church parsonage that was in disarray and within their budget.
They encountered every obstacle possible with a construction project. The existing building had mold, asbestos, and a rowdy family of raccoons who had taken up residence. But it was the discovery of carpenter ants that indicated the building would need to be torn down and a new building built.
The project would take five years to completed but they finally received clearance to open on a random week day, and after running to borrow from Kathy’s parents the $50.00 necessary to obtain the permit, they were set to open the following morning.
That afternoon they began moving every item of furniture, every chair, every book in the library, every crayon and pencil and piece of paper into the new school. They worked late into the night, but eventually got everything moved to their new space. It would not have been possible without the help of family, friends, and our Pied Piper students and parents who came to help us make the move.
Finally, Kathy and Marsha had the school of their dreams.
This friendship between Kathy and Marsha has spanned decades full of fun and laughter, obstacles and triumphs. It continued to grow as they built their dream together and helped generations of children grow. No matter what happened with the school itself, they never gave up the vision of how Pied Piper started: a fun, safe educational place for children to learn and grow. The same basic principals that started in a play group in Shrub Oak never changed; children come first, life is not fair, and dreams can come true if you work hard and believe.
And to think it all began with a play group, an idea, and two moms doing their best to provide for their families.
The Next Generation
Kathy and Marsha were joined in 2015 by Kathy’s son Max, who had just graduated from college and was looking to get into the family business of educating children.
He learned all that he could so that when Marsha retired in 2017, Max could take over as Co-Director of Pied Piper.
Max brought with him new ideas, a new perspective, and a background in physical education that was integrated into the daily schedule at Pied Piper.
Max and Kathy set their sites on a new goal, expanding the existing building in order to accommodate more students and create room for the growing business. That new dream took a lot of hard work and creativity, but in the fall of 2022 we were able to open the new and improved Pied Piper Campus with a full expansion of three more classrooms, plenty of storage, a library and office space as well as a turf field and multi-season outdoor area covered by an overhang.
The Pied Piper school has always been a family adventure. Kathy’s mother Natalie (fondly referred to as Nanny) was always present lending a hand. She watched Kathy’s children during the early days of meetings and applications and property tours. She was the secretary, organizer, furniture mover and provided a comfy couch and yummy food when Kathy’s kids were sick and needed to stay home from school. She cooked for all school events and parties. Thanksgiving was a full meal for all students and families. Every staff member got a special lunch on their birthday. You name it, she did it. Kathy’s dad Jerry (known as Grump) delivered wood chips for playgrounds, took care of cranky babies, supervised any project to be done, moved pianos, and drew up designs for the countless buildings we dreamed would be the perfect location for a school. Kathy’s sister Anita was our first toddler teacher in the very first Pied Piper program and was integral to getting the program running. Kathy’s brother Jerry acted as the attorney for the school, helping us navigate our first construction project in Yorktown. Kathy’s father-in-law Joe (known as Poppy) acted as the school janitor for many years, keeping the school spotless and the property well maintained. Without all of their efforts Pied Piper would not be what it is today.
It has remained a family business, with all of Kathy’s children working at summer camp, helping out on vacations from school and on recital nights. There was always a Pied Piper related project to do on the weekend— new toys to assemble, things to paint, or clean, or set up. As adults, each one of Kathy’s five children have stayed involved. We have managed to stay in business 43 years and counting because we have continued to grow to meet the needs of new generations of children. Here your children will be treated like family because they will be surrounded by family.
