for Sesame Lane Top marks

Sesame Lane Care and Kindergarten team’s valued contribution to the lives of children and to the business’s success were front and centre at the 2022 Moreton Bay Business Excellence and Innovation Awards, where it was named Business of the Year.

the private entrepreneurs, because that’s where the cutting-edge new innovation comes from.”

Head of Sesame Lane Kerri Smith thanked her team for all their hard work.

“Without these guys, Sesame Lane would not be as great as we are. Thank you so much also to Hilton and Lynda (Misso). I’ve had two great mentors in my life and one of them is Hilton. He believes in me always,” she said.

Sesame Lane employs almost 400 educators, teachers and staff and cares for more than 2000 children from more than 1700 families at its 14 centres.

Mr Misso believes the people at Sesame Lane make the difference. His management team handpicks staff for their positive attitude, caring disposition and passion for supporting young children to thrive. Sesame Lane also financially supports staff with ongoing professional development to ensure they continue to deliver quality learning outcomes for the children in their care.

In accepting the Moreton Daily Customer Service Excellence award, Ms Smith said looking after their ‘customers’ was vital in many ways.

Sesame Lane, which has been providing care and early childhood education in the Moreton Bay Region for more than 33 years, took out the top gong after sharing the honours in the Moreton Daily Customer Service Excellence category with North Lakes and Surrounds Electrical.

Accepting the award, founder and owner Hilton Misso said his current team was the best he’d worked with in six decades in business.

“That is said with authenticity and from the heart. I have been truly been blessed. They say if you’re blessed with good people and you have a great vision (you’ll succeed),” Hilton said.

“It took me a while to work out why we’re in childcare … the early learning between the ages of 0-6 is the period of a human’s life where you can have the greatest impact. To have the privilege of having a business in that area is wonderful. To be a teacher, an educator is the most noble industry one can be in.

“We call our group Think2Be and the strapline for Think2Be is think to be anything you want to be. It’s about what you believe you’re capable of doing.

“That’s one of the reasons we sponsor the Entrepreneur of the Year Award because I think the future lays in the hands of the entrepreneurs,

“It is absolutely important to our business. In early childhood education, we have a lot of customers - we have our families, we have our children and for us as a business, our staff are our customers too and our priority,” Ms Smith said.

“(Winning the award) means we’re on the right track, we’re doing the right thing, we’re doing a great job. This is for all of our staff, nearly 400 staff.

“We are doing a program called Rise Within and it’s a leadership program to help all of our staff, which is nearly 400 employees within this region, gain other skills and help them on a pathway to where they’d like to be for their future,” she said.

Mr Misso said the Moreton Bay Region provided many opportunities for businesses and residents.