For the whole week of Juneteenth, a woman and her granddaughter were at work painting a 40-foot school bus that serves as a Solano County preschool called Wee Count.
Wearing paint-spattered overalls, Gail Byrdsong could be seen at all hours with her brushes in the parking lot of the Solano Yacht Club in Suisun City, the site of Wee Count’s renovation.
Wee Count is an early education pop-up program that brings preschool to disadvantaged youth, founded by retired Vallejo teacher Cynthia Allen.
“This is my dream,” Byrdsong said as she created an image of children sitting at the base of a tree with hues of gold, brown and blue. Each day, family members and strangers pop by and join in painting.
On Saturday and Sunday, Suisun City will host its Juneteenth celebration on the waterfront, and Byrdsong expects a lot of kids will want to come up and help paint.
A Preschool on wheels
Wee Count founder Cynthia Allen, a retired Vallejo teacher, bought the classic 1993 Carpenter school bus when she retired in 2018, and soon got her Class B driver’s license.
Through a contract with Greater Vallejo Recreation District, Allen and her bus are usually stationed at parks or camps to introduce young children to preschool.
Inside, the bus has been transformed into a kid’s zone, with hardwood floors, tables full of games, bookshelves, play mats, foam tiles, toys and chairs.
“Preschool is the most important time in a kid’s life, when a child’s mind is still forming,” Allen said.
She reached out to Byrdsong for the project after the two met at a Black History block party. Juneteenth 2024 was the Wee Count bus’s post-pandemic debut. Allen thought it would be fitting to celebrate this year’s Juneteenth with a fresh coat of paint.
In San Francisco in 1964, Allen’s younger sister was one of the first children in Head Start, an early childhood education program intended to break the cycle of poverty. Allen herself hadn’t attended preschool.
“I saw how much more advanced she was than me,” said Allen. “She was a couple of years younger, but it came from having that experience ahead of time going to school.”
It’s easy for young children to fall behind, Allen said.
“In kindergarten, they have to be able to recognize letters and numbers and have social skills — if they don’t have that foundation from the beginning, they start out behind,” she said. “Right there, kids get frustrated. They get mad, and they start acting out. And sometimes, they never catch up.”
Bringing children and families together through art
Allen is known to many as Miss GiGi. The bus has hosted birthday parties, art classes, book giveaways and plain old playtime for children who need it.
“The kids are so excited when they come up the stairs,” said Allen. “And the parents are just as excited — they don’t know what to expect when they go up.” Allen expects the refreshed bus to be up and running again by August.
“This project can bring the community together at a time when we’re having lots of tension in Solano County.”
— Gail Byrdsong, artist
“This project can bring the community together at a time when we’re having lots of tension in Solano County,” said Byrdsong, referring to the recent killing of an 18-year-old and the police beating of a 16-year-old, both on the campus of nearby Fairfield High School.
“Art is a stress reliever,” said Byrdsong, picking out a brush. “I wish everyone could do art. They would have a lot less stress in their life.”