A champion for children
Friends, family celebrate longtime Haddonfield Child Care executive director Denise Sellers’ retirement
A trailblazer. A leader. A champion of children.
Those are only a few of the ways Denise Sellers was described last week at her retirement party. After 31 years, the longtime Haddonfield Child Care executive director is going to bid farewell later this month.
The crowd celebrating Sellers at Treno Pizza Bar on Monday, June 5, was comprised of friends and family, current and past HCC board members and employees, past students, fellow members of The Haddon Fortnightly and many others.
Kind words and memories flowed like honey, the sweet sentiments bringing a smile to Sellers’ face as she made her way around the room. Handmade cards, scrawled with the enthusiastic hands of children, were sprinkled on tables, the messages simple and sincere, adorned with colorful crayon drawings and bright stickers. In rainbow letters, one card told Sellers “the best is yet to come.”
While that sentiment is undoubtedly true — Sellers exudes positivity, and there’s no doubt the proud grandmother is looking brightly toward the future — the retirement gathering was bittersweet.
“She deserves to have some free time in her retirement, but we are really going to miss her,” Haddonfield Child Care board president Robbi Acampora said. “Denise is irreplaceable. She’s been here 31 years. She’s built the program.”
Many of the HCC founders were present at last week’s party, and Ginny DeLong, who also served as board president the year Sellers was hired, shared the story of getting the nonprofit off the ground.
“It was a bunch of us who didn’t know what we were doing exactly, but we were working moms and we didn’t want to have latchkey children,” DeLong said.
The group had a vision for the program. They didn’t want it to be babysitting; they wanted enrichment. And they needed someone to grow with that vision. The program incorporated in 1985, but the executive director that first year did not share the vision on which the nonprofit’s board founded the program, DeLong said.
When talking to her new friend Marie Dimatties, DeLong expressed her need to find a new director to lead the program. Dimatties recommended Sellers for the job, and the rest, as they say, is history.
“Denise,” DeLong said, “has been perfection.”
Sellers was able to bring Haddonfield Child Care into the community, overcoming challenges along the way.
“We really needed someone with that warmth to bring people in,” DeLong said. “To not shy away from adversity but stand her ground, but in such a gracious way.”
DeLong concluded by listing some of Sellers’ many impressive accolades, as well as reading the essay Joanne Morris and the members of The Haddon Fortnightly Evening Membership Department submitted when nominating Sellers for the New Jersey Woman of Achievement Award, which she won earlier this year.
“A champion for children, Denise Sellers has a unique way of reaching those who need extra assistance,” DeLong read. “Through her professionalism, generosity of heart and spirit, she is a Woman of Achievement.”
Dimatties, The Haddon Fortnightly volunteer who brought Sellers into the organization, spoke about her 40-year friendship with Sellers, from meeting the “hippie chick” back in the ’70s to knowing the leader she is today.
“When working with Denise over the years, I’ve admired many of her unique characteristics: her ability to listen, articulate solutions and totally focus on planning and executing the multitude of projects she has going simultaneously,” Dimatties said.
Standing next to her friend, there were tears in Sellers’ eyes as Dimatties said she wouldn’t “really retire.”
“She’ll re-channel her energy,” Dimatties said, “and continue to make the world a better place — especially for children. Her child-like enthusiasm will continue to inspire us all.”
Sellers took a few minutes to express her gratitude to everyone in attendance — for throwing the party, for coming to celebrate and for trusting her to help guide Haddonfield’s children for 31 years.
“The work has been so entwined with my life, I cannot imagine how I will breathe without it. But fortunately, thanks to the relationships I have made and the roles I have played, I will continue to have contact with the children and families of Haddonfield, and to work on behalf of children throughout New Jersey and the country,” Sellers said.
She took a breath and smiled.
“As I always say, all the world’s children are my children. Thank you to my own children for forgiving me the times I put other children first. Thank you to the people who have always been here to help me and teach me and guide me. I know you always will be beside me to do what is right for the children of Haddonfield and for all children,” Sellers said. “And thank you, tonight, for giving me the chance to tell you all what you have meant to me. I wish the best for all of you, for all of my ‘kids,’ and many more years of success for Haddonfield Child Care.”
