Staff Spotlight: Ana and Daisy!
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Three years ago, Daisy Clark and Ana Saenz started on the same day as preschool teachers at Family Relief Nursery (FRN). Neither imagined how deeply their partnership would shape the organization that families across Cottage Grove, Creswell, and Drain rely on today.
Ana's path led her into outreach, where she became a vital bridge to the community's Spanish-speaking families. As the only bilingual staff member in the office for a time, she quickly saw how much needed to change. Everyday paperwork like intake forms and status summaries simply didn't exist in Spanish. She set out to fix that, translating essential materials and reshaping how FRN communicates with every family it serves. Thanks to her efforts, we now serve more Latine families than ever before. Today, Ana is our fearless Outreach Director, guided by the belief that every family, regardless of language, should feel welcome and supported.
Daisy's route was just as transformative. After stepping away from teaching, she moved through substitute work before landing in her current role as Operations Coordinator, where she set her sights on strengthening the connections between FRN's three physical locations. What started as three sites with little administrative consistency now shares common systems, rotating staff visits, and cross-site events that build real camaraderie among a team that has nearly doubled in size.
Together, Daisy and Ana completely reimagined the Cottage Grove resource room. Today it's a bright, welcoming, organized space where parents can shop for clothing, toys, books, and household essentials without chaos or barriers. Through a growing partnership with the Lane County Diaper Bank, Daisy says with pride, "we can now communicate with families that we know we’ll have diapers at set times every month."
Both women credit their willingness to question "the way things have always been done" with helping build a stronger, more unified FRN. A more aligned, collaborative team helps us better serve our community. As Ana puts it, "The one requirement for this job that you can't go without is empathy." It's that shared value, more than any policy, that has carried the staff through its remarkable growth.
