Leslie VonHolten and her son, Atticus, were searching Lawrence for a fun weekend activity a couple of years ago.

While driving, they stumbled across the annual Fall Fair at Lawrence Community Nursery School.

“We just happened to stop,” VonHolten said. “That’s when we decided to enroll.”

The VonHoltens will be back from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday to participate in the 32nd fall arts and crafts celebration and fund-raiser at the school, 645 Ala. The event is open to the public.

The nursery, also known as the Little Red Schoolhouse, was started 55 years ago by four women with a radical idea for those times. The women were in a group called the Lawrence League for the Practice of Democracy, and they decided to launch an interracial, cooperative nursery school.

Twenty students and 10 adults opened the preschool April 17, 1948, in space borrowed from First Baptist Church, 801 Ky. The nursery changed locations eight times in as many years until taking up residence at the current location in 1956.

Lawrence Community Nursery School is the second oldest cooperative nursery school in the nation and was the first integrated preschool in Lawrence, said Stephanie Duncan, the preschool’s director and lead teacher.

Duncan said the agenda Saturday for children included a tour of a fire truck, face painting, storytelling and a chance to make puppets and toy instruments.

Food, music and dozens of door prizes will be offered. Area artisans also will be selling their work, including jewelry, ceramics, beadwork, paintings, textiles and glass.

Violet Wycoff, 4, swings during recess at the Lawrence Community Nursery School, 645 Ala. The co-op school, now in its 55th year, will conduct its annual fund-raiser Saturday.

Duncan said the Fall Fair typically generated enough money to make improvements in the school.

This year, the focus will be on replacing metal railings on the school’s front steps.

“We want to make it safer,” she said.

Amid the hubbub, folks also can get a sense of life in the Little Red Schoolhouse.

“It’s a great way to find out about the school,” Duncan said. “It’s a co-op, which is different from a lot of schools in Lawrence.”

Under the cooperative system, parents of the 50 preschoolers work alongside teachers on administrative, instructional and housekeeping chores.

VonHolten, Lawrence, said she enjoyed being an active participant in her son’s preschool education.

“It’s a very tight-knit community here,” she said. “We know all the parents of all the children. Because we participate in the classroom, we get to know all the kids.”