Dave and Rhonda Delnick Do Everything Together.....Even Retire
Originally published in the Lowell Ledger:
Thursday May 23rd was a banner day for Rhonda and David Delnick. The long time Lowell residents have been married to each other for forty years and they decided to have some fun and retire from their respective vocations on the same day. (FWIW, the solar system tossed in a little bonus with a full moon that day as well.)
The Delnicks at the start of it all.
Rhonda is known as “Miss Rhonda” to the hundreds of preschoolers she has prepped for their education over the years. Her career started with the Sparta Head Start preschool and then in 1999 she was hired to help Kathy Cole grow what was called Tots on Track for the Lowell Area Schools. That morphed into a preschool program for four year old at Curiosity Corner (CCPS) where she began with her first class of 12 students. She stayed at Curiosity Corner, managing classes with 48 students every year, until 2016 when she started a preschool of her own: Farmtime Preschool.
“For 10 years in a row, I had an end of the year class trip to my farm for my CCPS preschool students. They got to ride a school bus out to my place, and spend the day on the farm,” Rhonda stated. “They fed and played with the animals, caught frogs in the pond, and played on the hay bales and rope swing in the barn. It occurred to me that this is exactly what 4 year olds were designed to do. It’s time to take away the walls, and let kids be kids, and I had the perfect place for that, so in the fall of 2016 I started Farmtime Preschool.”
If you don’t know the Delnicks, then you might not know that they live on a working farm. One of the biggest benefits of opening her own school on their farm was that Miss Rhonda no longer had to transport her farm critters in to the classroom in order to let the kids experience goats, rabbits, and chickens. She did not have to schlep one or more aquariums into school in order to try and recreate a pond – now she and the kids could simply walk out the door and observe the pond and all of the nature around and within it. Rhonda is convinced a constant exposure of children to the ever changing natural world is a better preparatory classroom than handing out standardized testing in a sterile environment.
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| Miss Rhonda with some of her students keeping an eye on the recent eclipse. |
As you might guess from their decades long marriage, David was very much in sync with Rhonda when it came to a farm based vision for preparing preschoolers. Even though he is very much “a car guy”, David gave up their attached garage and transformed it into a nature based learning environment for Rhonda and the children. She assured me that it is perfect to have a space where they can build habitats, investigate, and observe all the wild creatures they find on the property before setting them free again.
Rhonda joked that with her track record of bringing the farm to the kids at LAS, they might not have minded at all that she left to start her own school. She reported on bringing a 60 pound turkey into class in a dog crate. The kids were loving his volume as he showed off his finest gobbling efforts. According to Miss Rhonda, the librarian at the school was not so impressed with his vocalizations. We have no doubt of the memories she created for her students, and their parents, when she would routinely bring all kinds of creatures to the school. Some of whom managed to escape from custody. She once put out an all school email explaining that the bullfrog she brought to class “might” have escaped. She then went on to explain that the missing reptile just might have made a nice snack for the snake she brought in for the kids to see. Oh yeah, the last part of the email admitted that the snake was missing at the time as well.
David has worked for forty-four years as an Automotive Engineer in West Michigan. The last twenty two of them have been with Lacks Enterprises in the Trim systems division. He is grateful for all of the opportunities that his career has afforded the Delnick family over the years. According to Miss Rhonda, the two of them were reminiscing about the number of years that they both put into their careers and David made a comment that brought her to tears.
David said, “Our careers are as opposite as we are, but we both got to the top of our game. The biggest difference is, a vast majority of the things I have worked so hard on all my career are either recycled or in a salvage yard somewhere, as opposed to the thousands of children’s lives that you have impacted and will likely never know the difference you have made.”
Rhonda was quick to compliment her partner when she told us, “Next to marrying David 40 years ago, Farmtime Preschool was the best decision I ever made, and I haven’t regretted either decision for one second.”
The future looks bright for the Delnicks. As we mentioned above, David is into cars. Over the years he has collected a few and Rhonda imagines that he will spend a good amount of time continuing to work on them in his shop. Both of them enjoy the outdoors and being immersed in nature, so they foresee a lot of hiking, kayaking, camping, and fishing. Taking care of their farm is a priority and they have a growing family to attend to now that their three sons are starting families of their own. Continued Involvement in the Lowell community will help fill out their schedules.
Rhonda stated,”After 40 years of marriage, David and I still laugh all the time, and have so much fun together. We are an amazing team and do most everything together. It only makes sense that we are both retiring on the same day to start our next adventure together.”
David chimed in and said, “Imagine back when you were 16, and summer vacation is here. The difference is, it’s forever, you have wisdom, and you have money! Life is exciting, and we thank God for all of the blessings he continues to give us.”
Dave and Rhonda a few years later.
After having shared her zest for learning and love for exposing young people to the wonders of everything nature has to offer, Rhonda was very pleased to let us know that Farmtime Preschool will live on. The new name is Windy Hill Farmtime and it will be owned and operated by Nikki and Eric Ahlquist at their farm on 5 Mile Road in Belding. Nikki has spent the last year job shadowing Miss Rhonda, so parents and students can expect things to continue in a similar manner.
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