Bryan daycare celebrates 40+ years of service
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – A Bryan daycare has been around for 43 years and counting, at sheer will of its founder. Over time, it’s come to be known as ‘the community’s daycare.’
In 1965, recent Texas A&M graduate Betty Hanks started her career as an educator. She taught kindergarten through seventh grade, but had to pivot in 1980. That’s when she discovered she was expecting twins.
“My husband said, ‘well twins, you’re gonna need to stay home.’ So, I took a leave of absence from teaching and stayed home,” Hanks recalled. “Some of the teachers found out that I was home, and they needed me to help them out with their babysitting.”
Hanks told KBTX she agreed to do so without hesitation and turned her home into a daycare center in 1981. That’s how Big Top Learning Center came to be. The founder’s love of clowns inspired the name.
“I closed in certain areas of my home like the patio, the garage, the utility room, and I had other teachers, other people that wanted to help me,” said Hanks.
Two years later, Hanks returned to the classroom while still managing the daycare. She later retired from teaching in 1995.
“That was the same time I got my daycare accredited,” Hanks shared. “I worked with the teachers, I wrote curriculums, and we just really went into it big time after I went to the daycare full time.”
As the center grew over the years, so did the challenges. These obstacles would involve a fire and two closures due to family health issues. However, that wasn’t enough to force Hanks to give up.
“I’m not a person to just sit down and just sit and not do anything. So, I wanted to make myself busy, so what to do but to go back and re-open the daycare,” avowed Hanks.
For about 43 years, Big Top has been considered the community’s daycare. This is a legacy of which its founding students, Tanisha and Tashara Hanks, are proud.
“There are generations that come through Big Top, like grandmothers that have had their child in Big Top,” Tanisha Hanks said. “Now, they have a son that brings his child to Big Top, so we have generations that come through Big Top.”
Hanks told KBTX she never expected the daycare to reach this level and is excited to see how it continues to grow.
“The kind of legacy I hope to leave with this community is that we made a difference in the lives of the children, that they are better because of Big Top,” added Hanks.
