By Nikki McCoy
Candyce Bollinger is a woman that waters her plants with leftover tea, she is a woman who has thick bouncy curls that frame kind eyes and seemingly perpetual smile, and Candyce Bollinger is a woman who changes lives.
Born just outside of Seattle, Bollinger has spent much of her life in Olympia. She has been a parent educator at South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC) for 32 years and has offered private parenting services for 28 years. A mother of four, with one grandchild, she also speaks at area schools, and helps with re-structured family and conflict resolution within the state court system. And since it’s opening at the new location, she has been giving monthly lectures at the Hands on Children’s Museum (HOCM).
“Her insight, the way that she tackles parenting issues and her approach are very much in line with the ours,” says Genevieve Chan, communications manager for HOCM. “She has a lot of understanding that this is a lifelong process, that parenting isn’t about getting all the nuts and bolts at the beginning. It’s a journey that parents and children have to go through together. Her philosophy is very much something that we support – both in the way we try and bring families to learn in the museum, and in the way that we can help make those connections she illustrates in her workshops.”
Bollinger’s workshops at the museum are presented every first Tuesday of the month and range in topic from positive discipline to resiliency. Chan says the classes regularly sell out.
Randy Weeks, principal at Pioneer Elementary and former principal at Mountain View Elementary, was a student of Bollinger at SPSCC after his first child was born, and has since invited Bollinger to both schools to lecture to eager parents.
“She just gave such great advice,” reminisces Weeks. “We talked about issues as a group. It was just a really supportive setting. I appreciated it.”
“I chose to bring her in to the schools because as a parent. I knew I got a lot out of her,” continues Weeks. “She’s got a nice, informative, relaxed way of teaching that honors you for where you are. She’s not judgmental, isn’t like ‘my way or the highway,’ she just honors you as a parent, but also gives you accountability and motivation.”
Part of Bollinger’s teaching technique comes from time spent in Africa, where she has participated in humanitarian projects every other year since 1985.
“I call it my graduate school because a lot of my ideas I have gotten for lectures will often come out of my work in Africa,” shares Bollinger.
“Like my idea to do resiliency,” she adds. “I’d say ‘wow, these kids are definitely having way more physical and emotional challenges than our kids typically have here and they seem to be able to navigate those challenges and still maintain an optimistic perspective on life.’ That made me think, ok what’s so different about this culture and resiliency and how can we build from that.”
Now, she’s taking her combined experience and making it even more accessible to the community with an audio lecture series launched in early February. Two years in the making, the collection is a series of twelve, two-hour lectures, at $10 per download. This allows busy parents, grandparents and caregivers an opportunity to listen to them in the car, via a mobile device.
The topics explored in the series include positive communication, resiliency, over-indulgence, discipline, emotional intelligence, sibling relations, and other topics..
Another project in the works is a book, where Bollinger is compiling newsletters she’s written for the last seven years. She says she has the bones of the book, and hopes to finish it by next year. It will carry the same title as the audio series, called Map of Parenting.
As lucky as the community is to have Bollinger, she reciprocates the gratitude.
“I just consider myself so incredibly lucky to do this work,” says Bollinger. “I’m really grateful that I get to see people grow and become aware and more connected to their kids. I’m incredibly impressed with people and their willingness to have the courage to really look at themselves and admit their weaknesses and grow. I think that probably affects me more than anything – just that daily reminder of how incredible people are.”
For more information on parenting workshops at HOCM, click here.
For more information about Candyce Bollinger and links to her audio series, visit her website.
