Carson City expresses thanks to Kinderland owners at picnic

Tristan Bragg, 8, takes a look at the snake painted on his face by Kinderland’s new co-owner Nancy Rodriguez on Saturday at Bowers Mansion. Rodriguez and Caitlin Castaneda, not pictured, are assuming ownership of Kinderland. (Photo: Jessica Garcia/Nevada Appeal)

By Jessica Garcia

Monday, June 28, 2021

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On Saturday, more than 160 people showed up to Rosetta and Malah McFadden’s final farewell at their retirement picnic at Bowers Mansion in Washoe City.
Families, friends and many of the students they’d taught in the 57 years they’d worked at Kinderland in Carson City came to thank them for the service before they prepare to leave Nevada in August for Oregon.

Rosetta and Malah McFadden are retiring from Kinderland Nursery School in Carson City after 57 years. (Photo: Jessica Garcia/Nevada Appeal)

Former Nevada Health and Human Services Director Mike Willden sent two of his sons and his youngest daughter Mikayla to Kinderland, where owners Rosetta and Malah McFadden made Mud Days and “Do-Do Days,” or donut days, to make it memorable for preschoolers like his children, he said.“It’s not the traditional day care,” he said. “Mud Day was the big day. You went in your bathing suit and wallowed in the mud, probably not allowable today, but it was always great. We’d always go there every other Friday. On payday, Dr. Steve Elliott and I would rotate back and forth bringing donut holes to the kids, and the kids would greet us there, ‘Donut Day!’ ”
Mikayla Willden received on Saturday from the McFaddens an old coloring book of hers they’d kept and found among their things after almost 20 years.
“They always did story day,” she said. “We’d go sit in one of these backrooms and they’d teach us the nursery rhymes. Malah would take us in a van to go do swim lessons. I always looked forward to that. They had the ‘Big Kids’ Room.’ I loved it there.”
Among other families were Carson High School librarian Ananda Campbell’s twins Augie and Betsy, now 13, who were enrolled in Kinderland when they were 3, Campbell said. Although Rosetta McFadden hadn’t seen either of them since before the pandemic, she had remained close with them throughout the years since they graduated, Campbell said.
“They were the toddlers and they grew up looking up to the big kids,” she said.
Augie and Betsy Campbell recalled entering the McFaddens’ “Big Kids’ Room,” reserved typically for older students with a Pac-Man arcade machine and gradually took part of many of the traditions and learned life skills such as setting a table and how to read earlier than most children as a result of being at Kinderland, Campbell said.
“Once you’re part of the Kinderland family, you’re connected,” she said. “My niece is in kindergarten now, and she’s been going there and she’s named after her aunt, who’s 48. They just found the paperwork for her aunt (who attended). … I think I’d say anything about Kinderland, you’re part of every generation who’s been there.”
John Bragg of Carson City said his grandson, Tristan Bragg, 8 now, also had been attending since he was about 3.
“It’s unfortunate they’re leaving,” Bragg said of the McFaddens. “(Kinderland’s) been such a big influence in my grandson’s life. All their fun activities and love care – we’ll miss it for sure.”
Tristan had his face painted by Nancy Rodriguez, niece and business partner of Caitlin Castaneda, who will be reopening Kinderland in August as Kinderland Cottage to retain the school’s legacy with a few new plans of their own.
Rodriguez, who has three children of her own, said she enjoys the fun children bring.
“You can take out the paint and they’re amazed,” she said. “It brings you back to when you were a kid. You learn through fun experiences.”

Carson City expresses thanks to Kinderland owners at picnic

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