Kendra Toner is fundraising
Help Us Move BCP's Magical Environment in 2020!
WHO WE ARE:
The Burien Cooperative Preschool has created a truly magical, one-of-a-kind play-based learning environment for children ages 1-5 and their families for over 60 years. At BCP, our space belongs to our children. We encourage them to explore and learn with all of their senses. We are proud that we are able to provide them and their families with amazing learning opportunities while remaining one of the most affordable early learning programs in the Seattle metropolitan area. You can learn more about our incredible program here: https://www.burienco-op.org/
WHAT WE ARE FACING:
Burien Cooperative Preschool (BCP) has called the Burien Community Center Annex home for 25 years, and we planned to remain there for years to come. We were shocked to learn on 12/9/19 that we need to find a new home and move out by 1/31/20. There have been thousands of lives transformed by BCP over the past 60 years. We urge our community to come together to help our 69 current students as well as our teachers and families to ensure thousands of future children are able to experience the magic of BCP.
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
We are determined to make sure that our magical preschool will survive this challenging set of circumstances and thrive in 2020 and beyond, but money is tighter than ever as we look at taking on this massive and unexpected move in such a short amount of time and our 2019/2020 budget is obviously set for the school year.
We need to find a new location that will meet our school's needs, cover an inevitable rent increase, pay for moving and/or storage costs, and outfit our new location to be suitable for 1-5 year-olds.
Your donation (GoFundMe or Corporate Matching) will help make this transition possible. Thank you for anything you can give!
Want to help us even more? Here are a few ways...
1. If you know of any buildings, homes, or other spaces available for lease or sale that could meet our needs, please let us know by emailing our BCP Relocation Team at: [email redacted].
- At least 2,000 square feet of indoor space
- Outside play space(s)
- Parking (approximately 20 spots)
- Burien, Normandy Park, SeaTac, Des Moines, Tukwila, or White Center
- $3,000 per month or less in rent (if possible)
- Residential or commercial
- Wish list: Ideally, we'd love high ceilings in our new space, so some of our amazing, customized play structures (play lofts) can still be used and loved inside as they were built to be enjoyed by our kiddos.
2. Moving will require physical labor and time. If you can volunteer to help (e.g. packing, hauling, transporting, dissembling structures, reassembling structures, providing storage space and/or moving vehicles at little or no cost, etc.), please reach out to our BCP Moving Team at [email redacted].
3. Our big annual fundraiser is coming up on March 21, 2020 at The Cove in Normandy Park. Our school is a non-profit (501 (c) 3 # 91-0784914), so any donations are tax deductible and monetary ones could qualify for corporate matching. We are also looking for Corporate Sponsors. If you'd like to know when tickets to this event go on sale in January 2020 and/or donate something to our auction, please email us at [email redacted].
4. Our move is happening during enrollment time. If you'd like to be alerted by email when we are able to reschedule our Open House (previously scheduled for the end of January), and/or already know that you want to join BCP for the 2020/2021 school year, please reach out to our Membership Coordinator at info@burienco-op.org.
Thanks in advance for your consideration and possible contribution(s) to help our beloved preschool, our children and the other non-profit organizations in need during this challenging time. It means SO much to us!
----
We realize that some of you are more familiar with our co-op preschool and current reality than others. Thus, we wanted to provide some additional information here for those individuals who would like to know more. If that's you, please read on.
MORE ON OUR CURRENT REALITY & OUR BELOVED PRESCHOOL:
With the 1/31/20 move out deadline looming, we have had to cancel classes for January and interrupt our children's learning at their beloved school. This decision was not made lightly, but it won't be suitable nor safe for us to have our children learning and playing in spaces that will become packing centers. This makes us extremely sad, but it also motivates us to make this transition as smooth as possible for them and to get into a suitable new space (hopefully a forever home) that we can customize to meet our school's needs ASAP. In the meantime, we will still schedule class meetups and outings to benefit our little learners.
If you have never visited our space, you may not fully realize what a tremendous undertaking this is for our non-profit organization. It is a truly magical environment that has been built with love and care for 25 years. We have many amazing indoor and outdoor play structures that have been built and customized for our space. We have an office, a large hallway and three classrooms full of toys, equipment and tools in addition to two large outdoor playgrounds with lots of sand, outbuildings and landscaping features such as a river and pond feature for our kids to play in. We have a very small teaching staff (three to be exact) and the rest of the joyful work of running the school is up to parent volunteers. Furthermore, it is also a busy time of year for everyone with the holidays coming up as we live our normal day-to-day lives already packed full of raising children, working, holiday plans (likely including travel), etc.
Our dedicated teachers and parent volunteers have been very proactive since we learned on 12/9/19 that we need to be out of the building by 1/31/20. Within a four day period, we held two emergency meetings at the BCP; one for the board and one for all of membership. We have also put in well over 100 volunteer hours in the last week as a group attending various community meetings (e.g. an Annex tenants meeting, The Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce's Roundtable Discussion on 12/16 and the 12/16 Burien City Council Meeting) as well as beginning a search and visiting at least one space in our search for a suitable new location. We have formed a BCP Relocation Team (to scout out and tour potential new spaces) and a BCP Moving Team (to help plan and manage the actual move). We will continue to work with the City of Burien, The Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce, the other non-profit Annex tenants, our co-op families and the community at large to find a new home for BCP and move all of our items as efficiently and cost effectively as possible.
Given our newfound reality, we are asking our current BCP families, alumni, family, friends, neighbors, businesses of all kinds and our larger community for help. However, we want you to know that we are and will continue to proactively plan and carryout our previously planned fundraising events too. We need your help, but we are stepping up our efforts as well! Our fundraising events and annual auction have always been important to our school, but this year they are ESPECIALLY important. Our annual auction is a super fun event, and we appreciate all of the donations that local businesses and families donate. Any thing and any amount helps. Some ideas include: experiential items, homemade/handmade items, desserts for our Dessert Dash game, products, services, cash/check donations. If you participate by donating to the auction, your business/brand will be advertised to our ~70 BCP families and ~120 auction guests. We'll also work with you to fill out a procurement form. We'd love to showcase your business/brand at our auction! If you need any additional information to make a decision, please reach out to us.
We SO appreciate your consideration and possible support of our amazing preschool during these challenging times.
OUR NEIGHBORS:
Six other non-profit organizations beside ours are being affected by the Annex closure too. They include:
- Burien Actors Theatre
- Hi-Liners Musical Theatre
- Para los Niños
- Transform Burien
- Meals on Wheels
- Journey Arts and Crafts
They provide valuable services and arts/entertainment enrichment to our community and could end up homeless, so please consider donating to them too. It would be such a shame for Burien to lose these organizations, so please help in any way that you can.
You can read more about our building being closed here:
https://b-townblog.com/2019/12/16/video-watch-mondays-roundtable-meeting-on-closing-of-burien-annex/
https://b-townblog.com/2019/12/13/city-of-burien-wont-extend-deadline-on-closing-of-annex-residents-tenants-share-outrage/
https://b-townblog.com/2019/12/09/city-to-close-burien-community-annex-leaving-several-orgs-homeless/
https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/non-profits-scrambling-as-burien-prepares-to-close-community-center/281-f2221b6a-59cc-4eab-ba9c-e908dc8a61d9
The Burien Cooperative Preschool has created a truly magical, one-of-a-kind play-based learning environment for children ages 1-5 and their families for over 60 years. At BCP, our space belongs to our children. We encourage them to explore and learn with all of their senses. We are proud that we are able to provide them and their families with amazing learning opportunities while remaining one of the most affordable early learning programs in the Seattle metropolitan area. You can learn more about our incredible program here: https://www.burienco-op.org/
WHAT WE ARE FACING:
Burien Cooperative Preschool (BCP) has called the Burien Community Center Annex home for 25 years, and we planned to remain there for years to come. We were shocked to learn on 12/9/19 that we need to find a new home and move out by 1/31/20. There have been thousands of lives transformed by BCP over the past 60 years. We urge our community to come together to help our 69 current students as well as our teachers and families to ensure thousands of future children are able to experience the magic of BCP.
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
We are determined to make sure that our magical preschool will survive this challenging set of circumstances and thrive in 2020 and beyond, but money is tighter than ever as we look at taking on this massive and unexpected move in such a short amount of time and our 2019/2020 budget is obviously set for the school year.
We need to find a new location that will meet our school's needs, cover an inevitable rent increase, pay for moving and/or storage costs, and outfit our new location to be suitable for 1-5 year-olds.
Your donation (GoFundMe or Corporate Matching) will help make this transition possible. Thank you for anything you can give!
Want to help us even more? Here are a few ways...
1. If you know of any buildings, homes, or other spaces available for lease or sale that could meet our needs, please let us know by emailing our BCP Relocation Team at: [email redacted].
- At least 2,000 square feet of indoor space
- Outside play space(s)
- Parking (approximately 20 spots)
- Burien, Normandy Park, SeaTac, Des Moines, Tukwila, or White Center
- $3,000 per month or less in rent (if possible)
- Residential or commercial
- Wish list: Ideally, we'd love high ceilings in our new space, so some of our amazing, customized play structures (play lofts) can still be used and loved inside as they were built to be enjoyed by our kiddos.
2. Moving will require physical labor and time. If you can volunteer to help (e.g. packing, hauling, transporting, dissembling structures, reassembling structures, providing storage space and/or moving vehicles at little or no cost, etc.), please reach out to our BCP Moving Team at [email redacted].
3. Our big annual fundraiser is coming up on March 21, 2020 at The Cove in Normandy Park. Our school is a non-profit (501 (c) 3 # 91-0784914), so any donations are tax deductible and monetary ones could qualify for corporate matching. We are also looking for Corporate Sponsors. If you'd like to know when tickets to this event go on sale in January 2020 and/or donate something to our auction, please email us at [email redacted].
4. Our move is happening during enrollment time. If you'd like to be alerted by email when we are able to reschedule our Open House (previously scheduled for the end of January), and/or already know that you want to join BCP for the 2020/2021 school year, please reach out to our Membership Coordinator at info@burienco-op.org.
Thanks in advance for your consideration and possible contribution(s) to help our beloved preschool, our children and the other non-profit organizations in need during this challenging time. It means SO much to us!
----
We realize that some of you are more familiar with our co-op preschool and current reality than others. Thus, we wanted to provide some additional information here for those individuals who would like to know more. If that's you, please read on.
MORE ON OUR CURRENT REALITY & OUR BELOVED PRESCHOOL:
With the 1/31/20 move out deadline looming, we have had to cancel classes for January and interrupt our children's learning at their beloved school. This decision was not made lightly, but it won't be suitable nor safe for us to have our children learning and playing in spaces that will become packing centers. This makes us extremely sad, but it also motivates us to make this transition as smooth as possible for them and to get into a suitable new space (hopefully a forever home) that we can customize to meet our school's needs ASAP. In the meantime, we will still schedule class meetups and outings to benefit our little learners.
If you have never visited our space, you may not fully realize what a tremendous undertaking this is for our non-profit organization. It is a truly magical environment that has been built with love and care for 25 years. We have many amazing indoor and outdoor play structures that have been built and customized for our space. We have an office, a large hallway and three classrooms full of toys, equipment and tools in addition to two large outdoor playgrounds with lots of sand, outbuildings and landscaping features such as a river and pond feature for our kids to play in. We have a very small teaching staff (three to be exact) and the rest of the joyful work of running the school is up to parent volunteers. Furthermore, it is also a busy time of year for everyone with the holidays coming up as we live our normal day-to-day lives already packed full of raising children, working, holiday plans (likely including travel), etc.
Our dedicated teachers and parent volunteers have been very proactive since we learned on 12/9/19 that we need to be out of the building by 1/31/20. Within a four day period, we held two emergency meetings at the BCP; one for the board and one for all of membership. We have also put in well over 100 volunteer hours in the last week as a group attending various community meetings (e.g. an Annex tenants meeting, The Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce's Roundtable Discussion on 12/16 and the 12/16 Burien City Council Meeting) as well as beginning a search and visiting at least one space in our search for a suitable new location. We have formed a BCP Relocation Team (to scout out and tour potential new spaces) and a BCP Moving Team (to help plan and manage the actual move). We will continue to work with the City of Burien, The Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce, the other non-profit Annex tenants, our co-op families and the community at large to find a new home for BCP and move all of our items as efficiently and cost effectively as possible.
Given our newfound reality, we are asking our current BCP families, alumni, family, friends, neighbors, businesses of all kinds and our larger community for help. However, we want you to know that we are and will continue to proactively plan and carryout our previously planned fundraising events too. We need your help, but we are stepping up our efforts as well! Our fundraising events and annual auction have always been important to our school, but this year they are ESPECIALLY important. Our annual auction is a super fun event, and we appreciate all of the donations that local businesses and families donate. Any thing and any amount helps. Some ideas include: experiential items, homemade/handmade items, desserts for our Dessert Dash game, products, services, cash/check donations. If you participate by donating to the auction, your business/brand will be advertised to our ~70 BCP families and ~120 auction guests. We'll also work with you to fill out a procurement form. We'd love to showcase your business/brand at our auction! If you need any additional information to make a decision, please reach out to us.
We SO appreciate your consideration and possible support of our amazing preschool during these challenging times.
OUR NEIGHBORS:
Six other non-profit organizations beside ours are being affected by the Annex closure too. They include:
- Burien Actors Theatre
- Hi-Liners Musical Theatre
- Para los Niños
- Transform Burien
- Meals on Wheels
- Journey Arts and Crafts
They provide valuable services and arts/entertainment enrichment to our community and could end up homeless, so please consider donating to them too. It would be such a shame for Burien to lose these organizations, so please help in any way that you can.
You can read more about our building being closed here:
https://b-townblog.com/2019/12/16/video-watch-mondays-roundtable-meeting-on-closing-of-burien-annex/
https://b-townblog.com/2019/12/13/city-of-burien-wont-extend-deadline-on-closing-of-annex-residents-tenants-share-outrage/
https://b-townblog.com/2019/12/09/city-to-close-burien-community-annex-leaving-several-orgs-homeless/
https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/non-profits-scrambling-as-burien-prepares-to-close-community-center/281-f2221b6a-59cc-4eab-ba9c-e908dc8a61d9
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