JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas –
The spouse of a military training instructor at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland has achieved command-level recognition for being the best in her profession.
Rebecca Seymour, who has been tending to the needs of military children for more than a decade, is the 2016 Air Education and Training Command Family Child Care Provider of the Year.
“It’s very humbling to be recognized because you’re usually here by yourself and nobody really sees exactly what goes on throughout the day,” she said.
Linda Salazar, JBSA-Lackland Family Child Care Program coordinator, called Seymour “the best of the best when it comes to a well-rounded military family child care provider.”
“Mrs. Seymour excels beyond what is expected of her with her interactions and development with young children, her relationship with parents, her key role as a model and mentor for other family child care providers and as a team player with the overall Family Child Care programs here at JBSA,” she said. “She represents first-class professionalism through her extreme customer service and by consistently going beyond the call of duty.”
Seymour, who received her award April 19 during a ceremony in JBSA-Lackland’s Carter Hall, said her husband, Dennis, now an MTI with the 319th Training Squadron, was assigned to Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., when a neighbor who was a family child care provider suggested she give it a try.
“At the time, my son was 6 months old, and I wanted to be with him,” she said. “My neighbor said maybe you should try this and that way you’ll still be at home with your son.”
Seymour thought it was a great idea.
“It’s an easy job to move base to base with and pretty much everyone needs child care, so it’s an easy transition when you’re moving a lot,” she said.
Seymour became a family child care provider at Eglin and continued her service to military families when permanent changes of station took the family to Moody AFB, Ga., and JBSA-Lackland.
Raising her own children – Trent, 11, and Bella Ann, 8 – and seeing them reach school age has benefited her as a child care provider, Seymour said.
“When you first start out as a parent, you really don’t know what your children like and what their age group likes,” she said. “Once you figure that out, it helps with the other children I have in here. Knowing each age group is so different and having experience with it, you kind of know what to expect.”
Family child care providers have a limit of six children per household, but that also includes their own children if they are not yet 8 years old. Now that her children are older, Seymour takes care of six children who are not her own.
“They’re usually here all day,” she said. “I have ones that come at 6 a.m., and they’ll leave at 5 p.m., so my day’s pretty long. When you add the clean-up after the children leave, it’s a good 12-hour day.”
Seymour goes above and beyond her duties by helping other providers, Salazar said.
“She has volunteered her time to assist in shaping new provider candidates by mentoring providers on safe and healthy environments and proper child development practices,” she said. “She collaborates with parents to ensure proper growth and development of every child that attends her program and has held programs for children’s parents, which created a climate of cooperative trust and camaraderie in the best interest of the children.”
Seymour, an accredited provider with the National Association of Family Child Care and a four-star provider with the Texas Rising Star early childhood quality rating and improvement system, is also active in the community. She has volunteered with Operation Military Christmas Toys; coordinated “Cookie Frenzy,” a morale builder for the Fisher House; and coordinated a food drive for the San Antonio Community Food Bank.
Seymour goes the “extra mile” in everything she does, Salazar said.
“Her cheerful and positive disposition shines, and is inviting to all children, parents, providers and FCC staff,” she said.