Kathy Hegberg and Terri Caine visit a classroom at Basalt Elementary School on Wednesday. Caine co-founded Summit54, which helps fund Summer Advantage, a five-week program that helps kids keep momentum in education over the summer. Hegberg founded Focused Kids, which helps kids adjust their brains to enhance learning.
Longtime Roaring Fork Valley residents Kathy Hegberg and Terri Caine could have kicked back and enjoyed the fruits of their successful careers in recent years and left the long hours of toil behind.
Instead, both of them founded nonprofit organizations and have personally plowed untold hours into improving the education of thousands of local kids.
After owning and operating retail businesses in Snowmass Village and Aspen and then becoming a child and family therapist, Hegberg, 74, of Basalt, started Focused Kids in late 2011. The nonprofit organization educates teachers, parents and kids about their brains and how to prepare them to reduce stress and enhance learning.
“We give them strategies for calming down and resetting their brain, basically,” Hegberg said. “They aren’t difficult. They’re fun things.”
The program has expanded but remains small. Trainers from Focused Kids work with teachers, parents and kids from Basalt to Parachute. Hegberg said it’s one of the most rewarding endeavors she’s ever been involved with.
“Maybe the child in me needed to do this. My dad died when I was little and I had all sorts of difficulties working that out,” she said. “It feels really, really good when you help a kid. That’s been my motivation.”
Terri Caine co-founded Summit54, which provides a free, five-week education program for kids from Basalt to Glenwood Springs.
Caine, 64, of Aspen, came to the Roaring Fork Valley in 1984 to pursue a career in TV journalism. After working for local television stations and in radio for a few years, she switched into public relations and communications, first with Snowmass Resort Association and later with Aspen Skiing Co. She performed everything from marketing to fundraising when the Aspen Glen golf community was launched and she remained with the company for 10 years.
Caine and her husband, Tony, founded the nonprofit Summit54 in 2011. Tony’s interest was in high school education, specifically helping struggling students get through high school and prepare for college. Terri’s interest was in elementary education. In 2011, she assessed the needs for the Roaring Fork School District.
“There were no summer school programs,” Caine said. “The district didn’t have the funds or other resources to make that happen. So I focused in on that and learned about Summer Advantage, which is the national program that had an excellent track record. That began the conversation with Summer Advantage USA to bring that program to the Roaring Fork School District. We’re now in our 12th year.”
Any student living in kindergarten through fifth grade that lives in the Roaring Fork School District is provided with a free, five-week education program during summers. It features instruction in literacy and math but also provides enrichment opportunities ranging from art and music to field trips to local historical and cultural locations. Kids also get supervision, breakfast and lunch provided, easing a burden off households where both parents work.
“Education to me and to my husband is one of the most important ways to contribute to society,” Caine said. “When you have an educated population, you’re helping create a strong future for our valley and our country. Education is a foundation for a successful life.”
Basalt teacher Kappi Meldrum leads a lesson in math to her fourth graders during the Summer Advantage program on Wednesday.
Maintaining focus
Hegberg has been civic minded since arriving in the valley in 1979. She was fascinated when she heard Goldie Hawn speak at an Aspen Institute event around 2010 about the developing brain and using mindfulness to make kids happier and better focused. That motivated her creation of Focused Kids.
“I knew I just wanted to make sure we had it in this community,” she said. “We implemented (Hawn’s) program in five schools here. Teachers loved it. Some are still using it.”
During an early trial run of Focused Kids, the first kids in the program entered kindergarten at or above grade level, according to tests.
“They were able to follow instructions, line up, pay attention much better than the rest of the population,” Hegberg said. “We were really excited and so were the teachers. That’s how we got into the schools. They started asking us to come in and train.”
Hegberg ran Focused Kids on her own the first few years. Her model was to train teachers, parents and kids at the same time. They learn about the amygdala, the emotional part of the brain that can get so stimulated that absorbing and retaining information can be difficult.
“They were learning exactly the same things and were learning a language of the brain to use in the classroom: ‘Wow I see that the amygdala might be starting to get a little out of control. What do we need to do?’ Or ‘Gosh, you guys are nailing it today. Now the prefrontal cortex is really focused.’ They started using that kind of language rather than saying, ‘You’re bad,’” Hegberg said.
Teachers are trained by Focused Kids to start the kids’ day with some type of calming activity. It could be coloring or simply taking deep breaths. The students take “brain breaks” throughout the day, before and after recess, before and after lunch and as needed during classes.
Kathy Hegberg founded Focused Kids which helps kids from Basalt to Parachute calm their brains and prepare for learning.
Hegberg believes the need for brain breaks to focus kids, and anyone really, has grown since the mid-2000s when devices such as smartphones became prevalent.
“The neuro-science behind what an iPhone does to a kid’s brain is just scary,” she said. “It’s an addiction and it’s an addiction almost immediately because it’s exciting and it keeps drawing the brain back. Then anything else that goes slower than that isn’t interesting. And the classroom doesn’t go that fast. It’s a challenge.”
The amygdala is overwhelmed, not only in kids but in many adults in the high-paced world.
“It’s been hijacked. It’s on high alert,” Hegberg said. “When that happens in anybody, you can’t focus. You can’t access that part of the brain that solves problems. So why it’s so important to start the day with a brain break is to settle the amygdala down and open up the prefrontal cortex to being able to learn.”
Brain breaks can be as short as four minutes. Focused Kids provides teachers and parents with 30 to 40 lessons they can apply to enhance focus. Schools in the two school districts from Basalt to Parachute are applying the lessons for kids kindergarten through fifth grade.
More on Focused Kids can be found at focusedkids.org.
Hegberg said there are unbelievable stories on how the program helped students. One young boy was struggling several years ago in his third attempt to pass third grade. His parents had been deported and he was being raised by a grandmother who didn’t speak English. He learned about the brain in a Focused Kids session and was empowered.
“He said, ‘I know all of you think I’m pretty stupid but I’m in charge of my brain now and I’m going to be just fine,’” Hegberg said. The boy passed third grade that year and went on to graduate from high school. He now works in the community.
“I just haven’t done anything that feels better than that,” Hegberg said, referring to the success stories.
She stepped out of the executive director role last year but remains on Focused Kids’ board of directors.
“My gratitude meter is off the charts,” she said. “It’s such a privilege to be involved especially in children’s lives in a way that they appreciate. There’s no better feeling for me.”
Kids in a Basalt classroom take a “brain break” on Wednesday. Focused Kids provides training for teachers that helps kids calm down and prepare to absorb and retain information.
10,000 students and counting
Summer Advantage has become a vital part of the Roaring Fork School District’s strategy. More than 10,000 elementary school students from Basalt to Glenwood Springs have gone through Summer Advantage or an after school tutoring program that Summit54 has funded for four years.
“We’re serving about 1,000 kids per year between our two programs,” Caine said.
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 boosted rather than hampered the momentum. Summer Advantage was held outdoors in regional parks that year since they couldn’t meet inside. The challenges that schools faced during the pandemic led to creation of after school tutoring.
“Parents reached out to us saying, ‘My child is so far behind. Can you please continue this program to help them catch up?’” Caine said.
Summit54 is the sponsor of the program and Caine raises roughly $1.1 million annually for Summer Advantage and after school tutoring programs. Summer Advantage USA provides the training for teachers and organizes the five-week program. In addition to providing kids with an education boost, the program provides a way for teachers to earn extra income. Summer Advantage is in five states at 20 sites and serves over 5,000 students, according to Kris Kingery, regional director.
The Roaring Fork School District is a dedicated partner in the local program, providing about $100,000 as well as classroom space, bus rides and teachers. This year’s five-week program started Monday.
Caine said there is tangible proof of the program’s success. A nationally recognized assessment is performed on each student one-on-one at the beginning and end of the five-week program.
“We have documented every single year a 2½ to 4 month gain in their assessments in both reading and in math. I’m thrilled with that amount of growth,” Caine said.
Each day starts with breakfast, then teachers use a brief brain exercise from Focused Kids’ program to prepare students for learning. They launch into two hours of literacy study, reset and add an hour of math study before lunch. Fridays are reserved for field trips, such as a trip up the Silver Queen Gondola thanks to SkiCo.
“For many of these kids, it’s the first time they’ve been in a gondola and the first time they’ve been to the top of Aspen Mountain,” Caine said.
She’s found the 12 years of the program “very rewarding” and says the kids’ reactions keep her motivated to push through the 60-hour work weeks needed during fundraising efforts.
“Any time I visit our programs, seeing the kids is really uplifting,” Caine said. “I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving them without a summer academic program or without the after school tutoring that is helping them to succeed during the school year.”
More on Summit54 and its work can be found at summeradvantage.org.
Hegberg and Caine have known each other since the mid-1980s, but they pursued their education-based nonprofits independently. It just happens that they dovetail nicely.
“What they’re doing just blows me away,” Hegberg said of Summer Advantage. “What the kids retain over the summer, with five weeks of support, that’s just huge.”
Caine said Focused Kids’ lessons are a vital part of Summer Advantage’s day. “Focused Kids is a program that I have the highest regard for,” she said.