The Cullman-Hightower Society is a community of supporters who believe sustained investment in early childhood creates lasting impact for children, families, educators, and our region. Members commit to giving $1,000 annually for five years, strengthening Action for Children’s work today while growing the community of support that will carry it forward for years to come.
The five-year commitment mirrors the first five years of life, when a child’s foundation is built and the adults around them need consistent support.
In five years, children grow from infancy to kindergarten. This commitment helps ensure children, families, educators, and early childhood systems receive the sustained investment needed to meet that growth.
As a Cullman-Hightower Society member, you are invited into a closer relationship with Action for Children’s work, leadership, and community of supporters.
Membership includes:
Join a community of supporters committed to strengthening early childhood education and creating lasting impact for future generations.
Cee Cullman and Rosa Hightower founded Action for Children (originally named 4C) nearly 55 years ago because they saw what children, families, and the childcare workforce needed, and what our community had not yet built to support them.
At the time, Columbus had only a fraction of the childcare capacity families needed. Thousands more young children needed care than available programs could accommodate, while the people caring for them had too few resources and training opportunities to support the quality of early learning our community needs.
Cee and Rosa saw that gap and built a bridge across it. They believed our community could create stronger systems of support for parents, childcare providers, and children, so that more children could enter school and life with the foundation for success.
For Cee and Rosa, that belief was not just aspirational. It was actionable.
Both women brought significant education, experience, and community leadership to the work. Rosa served as executive director of Central Community House Day Care Center, while Cee was a social worker, philanthropist, and generous supporter of causes that strengthened the community.
Their work sparked change in how our community understands the childcare workforce: not as babysitters, but as early learning professionals whose skill and knowledge shape children’s futures. They built the pathways we follow to train, register, and prepare thousands of childcare providers to care for children with greater skill and confidence. And they helped make it possible for more parents to work, provide, and raise their families with greater stability.
Nearly 55 years later, their vision continues to grow stronger. The bridge they built still moves people forward. The Cullman-Hightower Society honors their work to bring us here and calls us to meet today’s needs with the same conviction.
The Cullman-Hightower Society also carries forward the spirit of Action for Children’s 7 Generations Circle of Women, a group of supporters who understood that meaningful change requires sustained commitment.
The Circle’s name reflected the Seventh Generation value, a Haudenosaunee teaching that calls people to make today’s choices with future generations in mind.
For Action for Children, that long-view commitment is rooted in the earliest years of life. The children growing up now, and the adults working to support them, will feel the impact of what our community chooses to invest in today.