Busy Bees Drop-In Childcare needs your help!

When Katie and Laura created Busy Bees Drop-In, the plan was for two-year-olds to be able to occupy both the Bumblebees (toddler) and Honey Bees (preschool) classrooms. However, the fire department decided that because there was not an emergency exit door directly to the outside from the Honey Bees classroom, they would limit the minimum age of occupancy for that room to three years.

This negatively impacts Busy Bees, the families who utilize them, and the community at large.

The toddler room is busy, filling to capacity most days with one and two-year-olds, while the preschool room sits empty 80% of the time. Busy Bees' owners have projected that they need the center to be at about 65% capacity most of the time to stay in business. Unfortunately, the toddler classroom is only 33% of the total capacity of the center.

Katie applied for an Early Childhood Education state grant that helps childcare centers with small construction projects up to $7,500.00. Three weeks ago, Katie received the devastating news that the grant funds had run out, and they would not be considering applications until possibly the end of June. Without this funding, there is no hope of getting the emergency exit door installed. The owners of Busy Bees cannot financially support keeping the childcare operational until the end of summer when a new potential grant would become available.

Katie and Laura would like to stay open, and to be able to accept more one and two-year-olds every day. They have filled a much-needed niche in the community, helping parents who do not need full-time care, need backup care, or are on waitlists for other centers. They also help the community by accepting CCAP (Child Care Assistance Program) for low-income families. They have so many CCAP toddlers right now they are actually unable to accept more at this current time! If this childcare center closes down, it will have an especially negative impact on these families.

After hearing about the grant update, I decided to start a GoFundMe in hopes that the community can help Katie and Laura get the money they need to provide the care they intended to and remain open. My family has been so grateful to have this center available and we'd hate to see it close given these unforeseen hurdles. Please donate to this cause if you can and share with others! Thank you so much