When a Palouse, Wash., daycare center was in danger of shutting down, a community of parents and volunteers came up with a unique fundraising idea to save it.
Little Sprouts Child Care and Early Learning Program, a non-profit day care, partnered with MyRadio 102.5 FM to sponsor a Palouse-wide treasure hunt. Clues are broadcast on MyRadio every Tuesday and Thursday at 9:30 a.m. The clues, once assembled together, will lead to the location of the treasure that participants must find in order to win.
Jen Hegg became president of the board that took over Little Sprouts after the school board that ran it turned it over after it started losing money.
“The school board has set a really high bar for us,” Hegg said. “We are basically taking a business that was losing money and trying to turn it around to a profiting business in six months. It’s kind of a make or break thing. We have to raise this money.”
Hegg said they are putting in the paperwork to get a license to run the day care and need to raise $33,000 by Jan. 1. The staff is hired and ready to go and now they need to focus on fundraising.
Wendy Mueller, director of research and development at MyRadio, has been helping with the event.
“These parents in Palouse were at risk of losing their child care,” Mueller said. “And parents got together and created a new non-profit day care and then came up with this neat
idea for promotion and fundraising.”
Hegg said the day care is important to not only the parents, but also community members of Palouse.
“In a town as small as Palouse, day care is a really big part of the community,” Hegg said. “It’s become a destination for things like the Haunted Palouse and the only way to make sure that growth continues in the future is to make sure we can keep attracting young families who will carry the town on into the future.”
Little Sprouts is also participating in Haunted Palouse as a fundraiser.
To register for the treasure hunt, go to xmarksthepalouse.com. The final clue will be given out Nov. 3 and the winner announced Nov. 7. Donations are accepted if people do not wish to participate in the treasure hunt, but want to donate to Little Sprouts at littlesproutschildcare.org.