Alumni Merit Award Winners Were Buddies in Cobbs Hall

Like many friends who met in college, Renee Knobbe and Debbie Civey, this year's Alumni Merit Award winners, lived in the same residence hall. In fact, Civey was a resident assistant in Cobbs Hall and met Knobbe in the course of administering her duties.

"I had to go down and tell her that she was playing her music a little too loud," Civey said.

From that inauspicious beginning, the two would forge a lasting friendship and today are the owners and operators of a successful business, Little Guppy Child Development Center in St. Charles. Knobbe, who holds a bachelor's degree in psychology ('94) and a master's degree in professional counseling ('99), runs the educational side of the center while Civey, who has a bachelor's in business administration ('94), handles the financial side.

"Debbie brings the total business aspect," Knobbe said. "She is an expert at putting dollar signs to my ideas."

Similarly, Civey says that it is Knobbe's ideas that have made Little Guppy thrive and be successful.

"She has wonderful dreams for children, and she has realized them," Civey said.

Little Guppy opened in September of 1997. Knobbe, who had spent years working in child development centers, had the opportunity to buy the center at which she was working, which was in a renovated 100-year-old building in St. Charles. She sat down with Civey and talked about that opportunity and what they would do with it.

"We really saw this as a chance to change things," Knobbe said. "Brain development research was really hitting at that time, and we said, 'If we could do anything, what would we do?'"

They bought a second St. Charles location in 1998, also a renovated older building, and consolidated both into a new building on Elm Point Industrial Drive in St. Charles in 2003. The center, which is licensed for 172 children, is at capacity; the two are looking into acquiring or building new centers in St. Charles County. What makes Little Guppy successful, they say, is their educational philosophy, which values the children, families and staff equally.

In addition to cutting edge techniques in child development, the center offers services designed to make family life easier, including things like haircuts on site for the children, pick-up and drop-off of dry cleaning and even delivery of dinners to the site for parents to take home.

"As a working mother, Debbie has brought a lot of great perspective on things we can do to make families" lives easier," Knobbe said.

Knobbe and Civey said they were both active at Lindenwood as students; they were cheerleaders and participated in numerous activities and organizations.

Today, the Lindenwood connection is still strong. Knobbe teaches classes in early childhood education in the summer, and many Little Guppy teachers attend or have attended Lindenwood on a tuition break known as the Guppy Grant. Additionally, Lindenwood education students are allowed to come to the center to observe.

Both women say they are excited at how Lindenwood has grown and blossomed in recent years, stating that visitors to the campus who have not come by recently would be surprised to see the growth that has occurred there.

As for their own business, Knobbe and Civey know something about growth.

"This has grown into something unbelievable," Civey said. "We will keep it growing with additional centers. This will go on well beyond us."

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