Around 1930, several African-American women in Sarasota, including Alice Turner, Luella O'Neil, Susie Reddick, Susie Newton, and Mary Emma Jones, organized and founded the Newtown Day Nursery to prepare children for elementary school and help working parents by providing a safe and structured environment. The school received support from both the black and white communities of Sarasota from its beginning. In 1938, Elizabeth "Lillian" Perry secured a donation of two lots for the school, which opened that same year with ten students ages two to five. Classes were first held under oak trees, and local contractor J.H. Floyd soon provided a building. Community benefits, churches, clubs, and businesses contributed furnishings, supplies, and food. By the mid-1950s, enrollment had grown beyond the original building, and Helen R. Payne provided support and funding for a large new wing completed in 1960, after which the school was renamed the Helen R. Payne Day Nursery in her honor. In 2004, the nursery merged with Children First, Sarasota County's Head Start Program, becoming an early childhood development center with expanded family support services. In 2009, support from the Office of Head Start, community churches, and individual and foundation donors made a complete renovation possible. Since its grassroots founding, the center has provided hundreds of children with love, care, and a firm foundation for their education and lives, serving multiple generations of families.