This fairytale-come-true began with an idealistic public school teacher just out of college who lived in the neighborhood of her students. In stages, working with a community organizing group consisting mainly of concerned parents, Terry Ford founded what is now called Lumin Education, a network of campuses serving more than six hundred children in a Montessori setting. Her hard-hitting, positive spiritual values bring premium Montessori education into a successful implementation for the most needy children. [This article is based on the talk presented at the NAMTA conference titled "The Social Relevance of the Montessori First Plane: Engaging Families, Building Partnerships, and Finding Common Ground with the Wider Early Childhood Community" in Dallas, TX, Jan 15-18, 2015.]