Where Every Family Belongs
When Letoyia and Linton Cornell Horton began searching for infant care, they weren’t just looking for availability. They were looking for partnership.
A friend suggested The Sunshine School, an MJCCA Preschool. During their tour, the infant room was still reopening — not fully set up, a teacher not yet hired. But something stood out. “Nancy Parker, the director, said, ‘We meet our parents right where they are.’ And I just fell in love,” Letoyia recalls.
Her daughter, MollyAnn, enrolled in January 2020 at four months old, just weeks before the world shut down. “I handed her to Miss Melissa, and within an hour I got a picture,” Letoyia says. “She told me, ‘It’s okay, Mom. She’s doing great.’”
That reassurance continued.
When MollyAnn had surgery, staff checked in. One winter morning, when a fire alarm sounded at drop-off, a teacher MollyAnn had never had scooped her up and wrapped her in her own coat. “She didn’t know I was watching,” Letoyia says. “That wasn’t for show. That was real care.”
And MollyAnn didn’t just feel cared for. She thrived.
The Sunshine School became MollyAnn’s social world. She found her voice — learning to share, to welcome new friends, to speak confidently.
By kindergarten, she was academically and emotionally ready.
“They’re not just taking care of your child,” Linton says. “They’re teaching your child how to be a good person.”
The Horton family is not Jewish, yet they felt embraced from the beginning.
That inclusion extended in deeply personal ways. MollyAnn has multiple food allergies, and staff consistently ensured she could participate fully. “My daughter never felt excluded,” Linton says. “Not once.”
One of Letoyia’s most meaningful moments came during Black History Month. At The Sunshine School, she saw a board celebrating Black history. “My Jewish preschool had a Black History Month board,” she says. “Celebrating another culture doesn’t diminish you. They understand that.” For Letoyia, as an African-American mother, that mattered deeply.
The impact extended beyond MollyAnn. Teachers remain in touch. MollyAnn once insisted on hosting a Shabbat dinner at home with guidance from her teacher. “The Sunshine School will always be family to us,” Letoyia says. “If there’s anything we can do, we’ll show up. Just like they show up. They helped raise our child.”
Today, MollyAnn is flourishing in kindergarten — confident, curious, and brave. If you ask Letoyia what she wants other families to know, her answer is simple: “Your child is valued. Your child is loved. And you will be, too.”