NATCHEZ &8212; For 40 years, Mamie Mazique has devoted her life to helping young people.

When she leaves the AJFC Head Start program to retire at the end of October, she will leave behind many memories of children and their families whose lives were made better by Head Start, she said.

Since the mid-1960s, when she began to help young adults to get high school diplomas through the GED program and to follow them into the job market, Mazique has crossed paths with literally thousands of children and young parents in the Natchez area.

She recalls people who helped in the early years, when the community action agency was planted and beginning to grow &8212; Fred Berger, Marge Baroni, Charles Evers and others who played major roles.

&8220;People were so poor then in the &8217;60s,&8221; she said. &8220;People were making 60 cents an hour.&8221;

The agency grew and adopted the Head Start program, a federally-funded program that has helped low-income children and their families since 1965.

&8220;It&8217;s actually two programs now,&8221; Mazique said. &8220;There&8217;s Head Start and there is Early Head Start.&8221;

Early Head Start, established in 1994, cares for children prenatal to age 3. Head Start continues for children 3 to 5 until they enter public schools, Mazique said.

&8220;The whole agency has grown so much over the years,&8221; she said.

An example of how the program has grown is its stand-alone centers found in the communities it serves.

&8220;We used to have centers in storefronts, businesses, churches. At the churches, we&8217;d have to take them down at the end of the week and put them back up on Monday,&8221; she said. &8220;Now we have new centers in all the communities. We&8217;ve come a long way for children and their families.&8221;

AJFC operates centers in Natchez, Fayette, Woodville, Liberty and Gloster &8212; Adams, Jefferson, Wilkinson and Amite counties. &8220;We have funding for 946 children now,&8221; she said.

Mazique said some of the best work of the agency is done not at the school, which is located in the former Sadie V. Thompson school building on North Union Street.

Rather, it is done in the homes, where Head Start social workers go to assess needs.

&8220;We can help the children by helping the families with issues like Social Security and housing,&8221; she said.

&8220;Besides what we teach the children in the classrooms, we teach them by the environment they are in &8212; things like how to handle silverware when they eat, how to communicate, how to ask for things in the right way.&8221;

The program also provides for physical and dental examinations.

&8220;There are some jolly, jolly little children here and most are healthy,&8221; she said.

Sadie Bacon, who works in another part of the AJFC agency, worked early on with Mazique when the agency was first established.

She knows the void Mazique will leave behind.

&8220;She gave to everyone who was in need according to our guidelines. She helped the less fortunate children with food, clothing, whatever she could find,&8221; Bacon said.

&8220;And she was always ready to go into her own pocket to do what was needed.&8221;

Mazique said she hopes to relax and perhaps travel after her retirement.

&8220;I&8217;m going to try to get out of here and not to look back,&8221; she said. &8220;It&8217;s time to go home.&8221;