[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 115 (Tuesday, July 31, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1351-E1352]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  IN RECOGNITION OF ANN KATHLEEN SIMS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JACKIE SPEIER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 31, 2012

  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Ann Kathleen Sims who helped 
shape the lives of thousands of young children in the Bay Area. After 
providing quality and affordable child care for 35 years, Ann is 
retiring as the founder and director of Bayshore Child Care Services.
   Ann built the five day care centers in Daly City with endless 
passion and dedication offering children a place to learn, be fed, 
hugged and loved while offering their parents the freedom to work and 
provide for their families.
   Ann grew up near London and received her teaching diploma from 
Philippa Fawcett College, an affiliate of London University. She

[[Page E1352]]

started her career as a teacher in the Inner London primary schools. In 
1968, Ann immigrated to the United States. She taught first-grade 
students at Kalamazoo School in Lansing, Michigan and then moved to San 
Francisco to become the head teacher at Jack and Jill Nursery School.
   After Ann had her first child, Frankie, she set up her own day care 
school in Berkeley. From there she moved across the Bay and became 
director of the Daly City Community of Children's Services. She 
established the first local state-funded childcare in the basement of a 
church in the Bayshore neighborhood in 1978--the birthplace of Bayshore 
Child Care Services. Never afraid to take on big projects, Ann moved 
into a dilapidated Navy school built in 1943 and started renovating the 
new home of her growing child care center. The renovations have been 
ongoing and even now, a community kitchen is being built in the Midway 
Center.
   The Midway Center became the flagship of Bayshore Child Care 
Services and Ann won numerous contracts to expand her services to more 
families in San Mateo County to include the Parkview Center and the 
87th Street Center. I had the pleasure to work with Ann when she 
partnered with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to build the 
Mission Center, a custom-designed center that serves infants and 
toddlers.
   Helping parents has always been the priority for Ann. She is a 
tireless and innovative advocate for families and has embraced father 
friendly programs, special needs programs, and coordinated services for 
families. She and the Peninsula community built another custom design, 
parent friendly preschool and resource center, the Price Street Center 
or Our Second Home.
   Ann has turned a single classroom day care center into five centers 
serving over 250 children every day and employing 50 individuals, 
primarily teachers.
   As Ann has reached her well-deserved retirement, Bayshore Child Care 
Services will join forces with Peninsula Family Services. The combined 
organization will continue the mission of supporting families on 
limited resources and providing their children with safe and nurturing 
environments in which to learn and explore.
   Ann can now look forward to spending more time with her family 
including her husband of 29 years, Mike Sims, and their daughter, 
Frankie S. Crawford.
   Mr. Speaker, I ask the House of Representatives to rise with me to 
honor Ann Kathleen Sims, a dear friend, an outstanding teacher and a 
powerful family advocate. She has made San Mateo County a better place 
to live and work for all of us.

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