Arvada / Colorado / United States
Happy Valley Story Happy Valley Childrens Ranch is a preschool inhabited by around 300 children, ages three through five, and a staff of 15 teachers and administrators. Children attend one, two or three days a week for either a morning or afternoon session, which means there are approximately 70-80 children in the school at any given time. Happy Valley has not always been at its current location. Don and Lyla Woodworth had been operating a day care center in the basement of Calvary Presbyterian Church in Denver and had always dreamed of providing a ranch type atmosphere for preschool children. They even brought their two Shetland ponies to the church occasionally for the children to ride. In May 1960 they sold the day care business to an employee and bought a house on five acres at 47th and Tabor Street. In September 1961 they remodeled the house and an adjoining building and opened Happy Valley Childrens Ranch with four students, their two ponies and a variety of other farm animals. By spring of 1962 they had enrolled enough children to start an afternoon session and became officially licensed as a preschool. They graduated 25 students in June 1962. In September 1968, the construction of Interstate 70 made operation on Tabor Street impossible so the school was moved to the Quaker Street address. The Woodworths built the little red schoolhouse and a few animal shelters on the land they purchased. Happy Valley is currently managed and owned by Chuck and Mary Jean Boyer and has been since 1991. Mary Jeans parents were co-owners of the school for 22 years before it was taken over by Chuck and Mary Jean.
