Twelve years ago, Amber Hansen decided to open a preschool in a classroom at her church in Clinton. She was the main teacher, and had a total of six students.
Within two years of opening, the preschool had outgrown the classroom, and added half and full-day classes for more age groups. Starting in 2018, Amber oversaw the financing and two years of construction of a new school building on 7th Street.
Two weeks ago, at the Jan. 18 Chamber of Commerce Banquet, David Lee introduced Amber as president of the Clinton Chamber of Commerce board for 2024. The theme of her address was a natural for someone who had turned her vision of owning a preschool into a reality: “Serving the Next Generation.”
“I like to serve in the community and in my church,” Amber said. “I encouraged the audience to serve where they can.”
Amber came by her love of teaching and business acumen naturally. The daughter of Chris and Kim Long, Amber was born and raised in Clinton. Her grandmother, Betty Long, was the founder of Golden Valley Daycare. Her father owned Chris Long Plumbing. Although Betty did not live to see her granddaughter’s preschool open, Amber said Betty knew about plans for the school during the year and a half it took her to make it reality.
What Amber did not plan on was its success. To accommodate the need for more classrooms, the preschool, set up as a non-profit called Seeds of Faith, purchased three lots across from the church in 2017, and the next year, bought another lot when it became available.
“God kept opening doors,” Amber said.
The new school building has 5,600 square feet, with four classrooms, nine teachers, offices and a kitchen, where Penny Marchbanks makes a hot, homemade meal for the students. When the building was completed in 2020, COVID hit. The school weathered the setback, Amber said, and was able to meet mortgage payments “We held our own,” she said.
The school survived by offering classes on Zoom, she said, providing students with take-home packets of worksheets and monitoring their progress on screen. They held graduation outside in the parking lot, she said.
The preschool did lose some students, Amber said, but the next year, enrollment came back up and the school was at full capacity. Seeds of Faith now has a waiting list.
Amber said her job as Chamber president is to support the businesses that are here and to help attract more. She remembers Clinton as it used to be, with Walmart, a grocery store and a few fast-food restaurants.
“I like that the city is growing,” she said, “but still has that small-town feel.”
Except for four years she taught preschool in Calhoun, Amber has always worked in Clinton, she said. She lives on a cattle ranch north of Warsaw with her husband, Jim Hansen of Lincoln, their three children, ages 9 to 16, and 38 head of cattle.
Amber’s first job was babysitting when she was 12 years old, she said, for a family that lived down the road from hers. She always wanted to be a teacher. She graduated from CHS in 2001, and attended the University of Central Missouri, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Early Childhood Education.
“I loved all the early childhood classes that I had,” she said.
After graduating from UCM, Amber taught preschool in Calhoun while completing a Masters of Arts and Teaching from Columbia College. Then, she said, she felt it was God’s plan for her to open a preschool in Clinton.
The preschool, which is non-profit, receives grants, which help to pay off the mortgage incurred by the building project. Seeds of Faith holds annual fundraisers, an auction in the fall and a carry-out dinner, to help keep tuition low for parents.
It was a preschool board member who suggested to Amber that she join the Clinton Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors, she said. After eight months of attending ribbon-cuttings and business anniversaries, she was asked to chair the committee, then became a Chamber board member.
Seeds of Faith held an open house last week for students of prospective parents to tour the school, and has a few openings for next year. For more information, go to seedsoffaithpreschool.com.
To learn about opportunities in Clinton to serve the community, sign up for “Give Five,” sponsored by Care Connection for Aging Services. Run by the Clinton Senior Center, “Give Five” is for people 60 and over who are retired or close to retirement and want to find a new niche in Clinton. The four sessions, on March 19, 21, 26 and 28, include visits to non-profits by bus. Lunch is included. At the end of the season, people will be asked to consider volunteering five hours a month in the community. Sign up at www.goaging.org/give-5.
