Over the past month, Thurston Strong partners have provided over $1.1 million in grant support to local childcare providers and small businesses. The majority of this funding comes from federal CARES Act dollars approved by Congress and allocated to individual States earlier this year. Major pass-through investors include Thurston County and the Cities of Lacey, Olympia and Tumwater. These totals do not include prior grant funding provided through the City of Lacey or Working Washington Grant program offered by Washington State.
Specific Thurston Strong resource contributions include:
- Micro-business grants ($600,000 – over 400 businesses served)
- Childcare provider grants ($521,600 – over 120 childcare providers served)
- PPE gear (64,000 masks, 765 gallons of sanitizer and 150 no-touch thermometers – over 800 businesses, non-profits and other institutions served)
While these grants can’t replace or fully-mitigate the financial impacts suffered by small businesses and childcare providers, they do serve several interim purposes including:
- Building a temporary financial bridge for small businesses and essential care providers until more assistance arrives or the virus subsides, and conditions begin to return to normal
- Ensuring safe and adequately-staffed childcare options for essential worker families
- Circulating federal dollars through the local economy
Micro-business grant and childcare funding is expected to last through August. For more information, please visit thurstonstrong.org.
Childcare Grant Recipient Feedback
- As a single mom, I solely depend on childcare. It is the only reason I’m able to work to provide for my two children. I would be completely out of work without it.
- Without childcare, I would not be able to work as much. I know I’m not alone in feeling immensely grateful. For my family, it has been a lifesaver and a true staple in allowing me to continue to provide care to the patients in our community.
- Thank you for your tremendous support of childcare in our community. The financial impact of the pandemic on our organization has been significant. New staffing requirements, mitigation procedures, and school closures have worked together to increase the costs of providing high quality, licensed care.
- The support from Thurston Strong will play a key role in enabling us to continue operating childcare sites throughout our region. This service is critical for parents returning to work as well as children who need support in both academic and social/emotional skill building.
- Thank you Thurston Strong for being here to support our work. It takes a village!
Business Grant Recipient Feedback
- We cannot thank you enough for coming to our rescue being one of your grant recipients. This has been the worst hit our small business of 15 years has ever seen.
- THANK YOU. With this grant, I am able to pay July and August rent at my shop. My heart is full, and I am beyond thankful for the assistance from Thurston Strong.
- Thank you for your hard work on this project, especially during these times where small businesses need some extra love.
- Thurston Strong has been amazing in supporting small business through this pandemic!
- Thank you so much; we are so incredibly appreciative of this support and your help with this. It truly does make a difference and will be put to good use, as we are currently implementing some new ideas/concepts to adapt to successfully serve our clientele and community while in-house dining is temporarily not a viable option.