Continuing Our Future – A Conversation With A Long Time Supporter

by Timothy Mendes

As anyone involved with a non-profit knows, funding is an ever-present concern. But as important as large grants and corporate gifts are to PMCCP, our funding backbone is long time individual donors. These are the people who year in, year out make a commitment from their own resources to further PMCCP’s mission.

What is it that leads someone to become a long time supporter? The best way to answer this is to go to the source.

I had the pleasure to speak with Midge Williams, a person whose relationship with PMCCP spans almost the entire lifetime of the organization. Through involvement first as a parent, next as a board member (with the distinction of serving as president) and finally to the role of major donor that she and her husband fill now, Midge has seen all of the aspects of PMCCP that could inspire our neighbors to join her in giving.

Why should people give? For her, the first reason is obviously the experience of having her own children at PMCCP. Now in their late teens and early twenties, Midge still sees the positive influence the program had their lives. “My son was very shy when he was young,” she remembers about the younger of her two children who started at PMCCP when he was about 2½, “and had never been cared for by anyone but myself and his grandmother…For about his first 2 weeks, he would get a chair and put it in front of the door in the late afternoon to wait for my arrival. Of course the teachers let me know about this and I did what I could to get there earlier. But the teachers also let him be and talked to the other children to explain why he was sitting alone. Soon, when I’d arrive, I’d find him surrounded by toys and a snack and other children who wanted to hang out with him so he wouldn’t feel bad. And eventually, he was fine with being with the rest of the kids at the end of the day, playing with them when I’d arrive. I’ll never forget how the teachers let him do what he needed to, to become comfortable at his own pace.”

She also remembers how the diversity of PMCCP helped foster a confidence in her children she doesn’t think would be as strong had they not had the experience. “They were downtown, in the middle of the Market…They would be on their walks amongst the real world, and it brought them a confidence in dealing with anyone, child or adult…I can be at the Market with my son today, and he’ll still see someone and say, ‘Oh, there’s Bill, he’s still here’ and it’ll be someone he remembers from his time at PMCCP.” Midge’s daughter clearly thrived in the richly diverse setting at the preschool. “She has always liked being around lots of people from all kinds of backgrounds, and the atmosphere at PMCCP was perfect for that.” She says her daughter now approaches all people openly, honestly and with respect.

It’s clear that having a child in the program would give you a desire to support the organization, but what motivates others? Midge felt that the very existence of PMCCP answered that question. “My office wasn’t too far from the Market, and the thing that got my co-workers attention was seeing the children out on their walks. There weren’t too many other childcares downtown at the time, and just seeing the kids made everybody realize that this wasn’t just a workplace, that the area was a community and people lived here.” She also sites the program’s holistic approach to the wellness of the entire family—supporting parents as well as children’s needs—as setting a standard in the community. When asked about what she would tell others that would encourage them to give to PMCCP, she mentions that along with the obvious need to support high quality childcare, supporting PMCCP gives you the feeling of really making a difference to a local organization. “We support other organizations that are larger, but one of the things that’s so appealing about PMCCP is its size. It’s much more intimate and you feel like you are directly supporting your neighbors.”

As a current board member, I felt inspired by my conversation with Midge. I thought not only of what I can do to encourage and cultivate long term relationships for PMCCP, I also felt a renewed sense of my own support. By helping to maintain and grow one of the best human service organizations in the greater Seattle area, I have the opportunity to support my immediate community. And I found another great example we can all follow.

Timothy Mendes is currently the Secretary on the Pike Market Child Care & Preschool Board of Directors. He has been a major donor to the preschool since 1997.

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Pike Market Child Care and Preschool
loacted at the Pike Place Market in Seattle, WA
1501 Pike Place No. 313
Seattle, Washington (WA) 98101
Phone: 206/625-0842
Fax: 206/625-0134

info@pikemarketkids.org