Ashleigh C. (’12) with Amelia at the Early Childhood Daycare Center at Stone Ridge.
As I make my way towards the Early Childhood Daycare Center, pairs of large, blue eyes catch my attention. The early sun shines on the round faces of babies who quietly observe the Stone Ridge campus while being pushed in their designated strollers. I immediately approach them and try to make the babies laugh by tickling their feet and making gaga faces. The babies, however, furrow their eyebrows and shoot me a look. Obviously, I am disrupting their peaceful stroll.
I realize these babies are clever; they don’t fall for the average peek-a-boo game or monkey face. Clearly, each baby has his or her own distinct personality. The Early Childhood program at Stone Ridge makes it their primary goal to work with each character. 
The daycare center, fondly known among the Stone Ridge community as “Pebble Ridge,” is a little house seated right next to the old, distinguished Hamilton House. Pebble Ridge is a daycare for young children, roughly between several months and two years of age, with nine staff members. The daycare also happens to be a social action service site for SR seniors, Ashleigh Canton and Gaby Keane.
Getting down on all fours to the babies’ level, I ask Ashleigh about Pebble Ridge and why she considers it a Social Action service site. One of the babies crawls into Ashleigh’s lap and fidgets with the senior’s shiny keys as I ask questions. I realize that she and the other staff members at the Early Childhood Development Center have the responsibility of being empathetic: a rare quality which requires a person to actually feel the emotions of another who is not able to communicate his or her thoughts. Pebble Ridge can therefore be considered the perfect example that empathy is at the core of any kind of service, a message which the Stone Ridge Social Action Program imparts on its participants.
