Four-year-old Tristan Stidham manipulates red and blue number rods with confidence, counting off the lengths, arranging them in order at the Children Inc. Montessori and Early Learning Academy.

At a nearby table, 6-year-old Cameron West is assembling a Trinomial Cube - a block puzzle that represents a physics equation - while 4-year-old Hallie Williams practices yoga positions on a blue mat.

The room is buzzing with possibilities, challenges and young brains building connections and experiences. That buzz is the future, says Children Inc. director Rick Hulefeld, who has become a nationally recognized authority on early childhood education.

As the director of Northern Kentucky's largest early childhood education organization, Hulefeld's job is to imagine strong futures for every child and then make them happen. The means could be prenatal help for teen moms, home visits with first-time mothers and babies, cutting-edge training for preschool teachers, new learning methods for older kids, or even brain conferences to educate teachers, parents and the public about the scientific breakthroughs that are telling us more about how and when children learn.

Today, Hulefeld is inviting the community to take a hand in pouring a little more fuel into his agency's engine. He's launching a capital campaign to raise $1.6 million to pay for new office, training and programming space, expand more programs for low-income children, and to continue developing learning products that will be made available across the U.S. to parents and child educators.

The campaign, called "Imagine Tomorrow," already is more than halfway to its goal with pledges of $830,000 from major foundations and individuals. Hulefeld and his campaign chair, Chuck Goering, are moving from private solicitations to the public phase now, asking the wider community to contribute.

Part of the money will pay for the new Children Inc. headquarters at 333 Madison Ave. in Covington. The two-story office building overlooks one of the agency's child care centers at the Internal Revenue Service and will accommodate a training center as well as consolidation of administrative offices, with room to spare for future projects.

Hulefeld said the agency had planned to hold a fund drive and then look for land to build a new administration and training center. He was able to buy the Madison Avenue office building for close to $300,000, far less than the cost or time commitment to build.

"By purchasing this building, we stay in Covington and we can stay focused on our mission instead of dealing with construction," he said.

The last time Children Inc. held a capital campaign was in 1995, when the agency bought a former office building at 11th Street and Madison Avenue and moved most of its staff and administrative offices there from space that had been shared with the nearby Cathedral School of Montessori and Early Education and other locations.

The building had expansion space for programs as well as the offices, but as the agency has grown, the need for another building became more and more apparent, said Hulefeld.

"Since 1995, we've tripled in size," he said. "In the last three to five years, whenever we have wanted to start something, we had to rent space offsite."

Last fall, the agency launched its service learning program, which teaches school teachers to take lessons in math, history or language and create service projects that drive home the lesson through hands-on experience and help the community, too. The training program is now a major tenant at the old office building, which has become a chief training site for the agency.

"By May 30, we believe over 10,000 Northern Kentucky school children will have completed a service learning project," said Hulefeld. "We want to expand that - to have 15,000 to 20,000 children a year doing service learning projects."

The agency's shotgun start for its capital campaign could be an indication of its credibility in the community.

"Children Inc. is one of the premier early childhood education organizations in the community," said Rob Reifsnyder, president of the United Way of Greater Cincinnati.

"They have consistently provided innovative services. They are constantly thinking about how to improve that early childhood education for children. They are strenuous about measuring and assessing the progress of the children and adjusting and adapting programming to meet the individual needs of the children."

Helen Carroll, manager of community relations for Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America, called Children Inc. one of the strengths of the Northern Kentucky community.

"They are a critical piece of the whole Vision 2015 initiative," she said, referring to the communitywide planning process to map the area's future. "They are integral to local and federal programs like Every Child Succeeds and Success by Six. They make this community better."

For Hulefeld, early childhood education is a calling. And the education has to start far earlier than most people realize.

New brain imaging technology has provided proof that a child's early experiences can actually increase the size and capacity of the brain. That scientific breakthrough has changed early childhood education.

"We are the first people who know, really know that intelligence is not fixed," said Hulefeld. "We know that the foundation of education starts from birth."

Some of the most important learning years for children are from birth to 5.

"We know that one-third of all children in America arrive in kindergarten significantly behind, and we know that half of the kids who drop out of high school started in kindergarten behind," Hulefeld said. "If we want more children graduating from high school, we have to focus on how they are arriving at school, on what happens before they walk in the door."