BP Cherry Point donates $100,000 to Whatcom County boys and girls club

BP Cherry Point Refinery recently donated $100,000 to the Whatcom County Boys and Girls Club (WCBGC) to assist its fundraising campaign in licensed childcare.

“We’ve had a shortage of licensed childcare in Whatcom County,” said Heather Powell, the club’s CEO. “Over the last few years of the pandemic, it’s shown how critical childcare is to keeping the rest of the community functioning.”

The donation is intended to fund WCBGC’s purchase of Kids’ World, a former private daycare in Whatcom County that provided four childcare facilities, according to the club’s press release.

There are four phases of WCBGC’s fundraising campaign to purchase the four sites. The club has completed phase 1 in purchasing the Ferndale Kids’ World property, and BP’s grant is going to phase 2, which is purchasing the site on Yew Street in Bellingham, Powell said. Phase 3 will be purchasing the Kids’ World site on Home Road in north Bellingham, while phase 4 will be the site on East Sunset Drive in Bellingham.

“We have about a million dollars left to raise for buying the site,” Powell said of the phase 2 site. “BP is among our biggest contributors.”

BP has been WCBGC’s biggest event sponsor for over five years, Powell said. Previous to Covid-19, BP employees volunteered at WCBGC to run programs. There are currently 532 licensed childcare spots available in the county, and Powell believes BP’s donation is a strong demonstration of childcare’s importance.

“This contribution is for early childhood development programs,” said Pamela Brady, northwest director of government and public affairs at BP. “They were going to close Kids’ World down a few years ago, and there’s a limited number of available spots for childcare. The club took it on. We thought it was a really great move in the community and we are glad to see the preservation.”

With such a tight employee base at BP Cherry Point, Brady understands that inclusive and increased childcare means a larger, diverse workforce.

“People can’t go to work if they don’t have a place for their child to go,” Powell said. “And retaining the number of child licensed childcare slots we have in Whatcom County is an important economic development driver.”

WCBGC took on the fundraising campaign March 2020, right before the pandemic.

“We have not closed for a day,” Powell said. “Serving this community is our duty and kids need a safe place to go while their parents are doing whatever they need to do.”