EXCERPT FROM: Arizona Daily Star
By Carmen Duarte
A Pueblo Gardens child-care center won a $50,000 grant from Pepsi to subsidize day care for 40 children from low-income families.
Tucson Nursery School and Child Care Centers planned to announce today that it will receive $25,000 this week and the remainder in September after being named a winner in the Pepsi Refresh Project.
The project, which was announced during the Super Bowl, awards communities across the nation that submit applications saying how they will better their neighborhoods with fresh ideas. Pepsi is awarding a total of $1.3 million in grants each month to applicants that receive the most votes for their projects online. Grants range from $5,000 to $250,000.
Tucson Nursery School and Child Care Centers was one of the winners for the month of June and competed with more than 1,000 applicants in the education category, said Colleen Bagnall, development director for Child and Family Resources. She also handles public relations and marketing for the nursery school.
"When we received word that we won, we couldn't believe it," said Sherry Bolinger, director of the school at 2385 S. Plumer Ave. "This is a miracle, and it will help us a lot because we rely on donations, which are down this year because of the economy," said Bolinger.
The nursery school was established during World War II to care for children whose mothers went to work to support the war effort while their husbands were in the armed services. Most of the families the nursery school serves today are eligible for state Department of Economic Security child-care subsidies, said Bolinger.
Before DES budget cuts in February, the nonprofit's school's enrollment was 138 students and is now 88 students. Statewide 48,300 children were receiving child-care subsidies, and in April it was 31,913, DES statistics show. At the end of June, about 10,300 children were on a DES waiting list for child-care services.
One of the recipients of a Tucson Nursery School and Child Care Centers grant is Veronica Martinez. The 24-year-old single mother of two will be enrolling her children in the nursery school next week.