Sprouting Tree Learning Center Honored on The Ellen DeGeneres Show
What follows is an inspiring, true-life story of a Preschool Director/Owner who looked to Ellen DeGeneres in admiration – you will feel the excitement in her own words, how she simply thought her letters were acknowledged but something ultra-surprising happened!
“A simple letter telling my biggest inspirational person how I admire her and how I like to pretend I'm like her was actually answered one day as I was picking up my youngest daughter from daycare. I had to pull over from the excitement!
Someone from The Ellen Show calling me? Mrs. Ana? I didn't really care what the call was all about, just to hear the name Ellen was so exciting!
So basically, the representative was calling to let me know that they had received my letter, and in my head I was wondering which one? I think of Ellen as a friend, someone who I could write to and just maybe give her feedback on her show or just to tell her how much I adore her. I've never asked her for anything. They wanted to know if I had ever attended any tapings but my response was I didn't need to cause I could just feel the same excitement at home with my girls.
I spoke with several different awesome people from The Ellen Show. They asked me different questions such as what I did for a living and got to know me. By the end of that night they asked me if I was interested in participating in an automated call. This would help them with feedback for the show -- I was in! I mean anything to help my Ellen Show, right? Well that's what I thought. I told them basically my whole life story in 10 minutes -- how I was in the Child Development Field, how I loved what I did and how finally my dreams of becoming a Preschool Owner had just came true.
I mentioned how I truly care about my staff and without them or my business partner I wouldn't be where I am today. As life presents some challenges, I mentioned how life was crazy for me but it all works out when you believe and work hard at things you want to accomplish. I also mentioned how I had just had a baby three months ago and was opening my own preschool within weeks of each other. I stayed very positive, saying everything is going to be ok!
The next day one of the women I was talking with met me in person to explain how I was going to Skype with her boss. I was still so excited about being able to help out. So the call comes in and I was super nervous. I was trying to hear the call while my three-year-old was talking, my husband trying to hand me our three-month-old baby and I couldn't really hear the automated prompts on the call. And, I had no idea that I was actually speaking with Ellen, all I wanted to do was to make sure I was pressing the right number and to not hang up on them as I usually do when I get calls like that. Well the rest is history when you see what happened after I opened the door! Nothing was scripted and my reactions were truly how I am as a wife, mom and preschool teacher -- just as a regular woman trying to live a dream and work hard at it.
I'm still shocked and in disbelief about how writing to someone how you feel really pays off. I was more excited to be able to take our staff to The Ellen Show and to be able to have fun with my team! All of us were able to attend her show, and let me tell you we were treated like celebrities! They didn't tell us what we were going to do! We just knew that we were Ellen's special visitors and that was it. Again she played a little trick on us teachers.
I truly believe she loved my story of how passionate I am about preschool and how I like to pretend to be like her in my own way. I'm not a rich person but I believe I am a rich person in other ways. I work with some awesome people who love what they do for living -- which is to work with preschoolers. For us to be able to work with them, we are the richest people on earth...
Ana Mendoza
Sprouting Tree Learning Center