Plant a Seed with Little Tree Huggers!

Please continue to help the Nation’s most highly regarded bilingual, nature-based preschool grow and impact the lives of hundreds of more children and families! Our rain-or-shine outdoor learning environment needs to be accessible to as many children as possible!!!

2023 was spectacular for Little Tree Huggers (LTH). Your generous support helped us secure 4 additional acres of nature preserve and allowed us to double our capacity! As if that weren’t enough, LTH received Loudoun County’s first Small Business Sustainability Award along with the U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School Award! Despite being the nation’s most highly regarded nature-based preschool, LTH has constantly struggled to attract and retain staff since 2015. The combination of the county’s high cost of living and the income tax burden, particularly for single income earners, makes the net income for a preschool teacher paid on the highest range of the national average ($20/hour) insufficient to attract and retain quality educators. The $122,880 we are currently seeking is to create a 2 (two) year buffer to allow LTH to increase the income of four staff members by $8.00/hour. This would translate to gross income of $25/hour per Assistant and $28/hour per Teacher and hopefully allow us to attract and retain personnel more effectively more equitably.

Little Tree Huggers Preschool https://www.littletreehuggers.org

Little Tree Huggers (LTH) Earth Center is the evolution of LTH LLC, a home-based child care, licensed to operate with a maximum of 12 children since 2015 in Leesburg, VA. Due to an overwhelming response to our curriculum and award-winning environmental commitments like solar and geothermal, we were urged by the local community to embark on the process of expanding LTH into an environmental educational center able to impact the lives of hundreds of more children and families. LTH Earth Center was incorporated in 2020 as the charitable arm of LTH LLC and we have worked together over the last few years to acquire an additional 4 acres to meet the necessary zoning and licensing requirements double our wildlife sanctuary and student population.

What Makes Us Special:

As early as 2016, LTH started being recognized by the community for our dedication and commitment to environmental education and innovative sustainability practices. In addition to implementing a comprehensive nature-based, bilingual curriculum, we established a Wildlife sanctuary, recognized by the Loudoun Nature Conservancy, the Audubon Society, and the National Wildlife Federation. We also set the example by installing geothermal heating and cooling, an extensive 48-panel solar array, and various other energy efficiency solutions to make LTH carbon neutral over the years! LTH was a Loudoun County Sustainable Business Challenge Platinum Award Winner in 2016 and, in 2017, we received the County’s top award: the Loudoun Sustainable Business Excellence Award!

Recognizing the need for more environmental awareness, we became founding members of the Virginia Green Initiative (VGI) in 2018. https://www.vgi.green VGI was a statewide initiative to encourage and promote a healthy and sustainable quality of life for all Virginians. We assisted families and businesses in improving and becoming more sustainable and recognized their efforts to use sustainable best practices to positively impact their bottom lines! 2019, 2020 and 2021 saw us recognized yet again, this time at the state level with First Place Platinum and Innovation Awards from VGI.

With more and more families becoming interested in what we were doing, it was inevitable that we would need to expand from our 12-student population. In early 2020, at the urging of parents and community leaders, we incorporated LTH Earth Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the next phase of LTH’s growth. Donors since 2020 have been able to deduct contributions made to LTH under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3)!

LTH’s most recent honors include Loudoun County Virginia’s first Small Business Sustainability Award and the 2023 U.S. Department of Education’s Green Ribbon School Award.

Where Your Donations Will Go:

Supplementing teacher’s salaries. Despite being the most highly regarded nature-based preschool, LTH has constantly struggled to attract and retain staff since 2015. The combination of Loudoun County Virginia’s high cost of living and the income tax burden, particularly for single income earners, makes the net income for a preschool teacher paid at the highest range of the national average ($20/hour) insufficient to attract and retain quality educators. The $122,880 we are currently seeking is to create a 2 (two) year buffer to allow LTH to increase the income of four staff members by $8.00/hour. This would translate to gross income of $25/hour per Assistant and $28/hour per Teacher and hopefully allow us to attract and retain personnel more effectively and equitably.

Once this benchmark is reached, your donations will continue to:

Help feed our growing number of rescue animals. Each $100 donation feeds our ponies, Alpacas, and Goats for a month and each $30 donation feeds our hens, ducks and turkeys for a week!

Grow LTH into freestanding elementary educational center.

For those who are truly passionate about sustainability, please consider one of the following partnership pledge levels over the next 12 to 24 months:

Platinum Partner: $400/month for 24 months

Gold Partner: $200/month for 24 months

Silver Partner: $100/month for 24 months

Community Partner: $100/month for 12 months

Family Partner: $50/month for 12 months