FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Heritage University to Dedicate New Early Learning Center 

Toppenish, Wash. – Heritage University will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new $4.1 million state-of-the-art Early Learning Center (ELC) made possible through the generosity of an anonymous donor. The ELC project also received a grant from the Washington State Department of Commerce. The ceremony will take place Friday, December 16, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. on the Heritage University campus.

The new five-classroom ELC is scheduled to open in January. The ELC will serve children between the ages of 12 months and kindergarten, providing pre-kindergarten learning known to be invaluable in later years of scholastic achievement. This new facility will allow the ELC to increase its licensed enrollment from 74 to 90 students.

The university’s ELC shares the Heritage University mission of making higher education accessible regardless of economic, cultural, or social barriers and will strive to help families with similar access and financial challenges to prepare their children for success in kindergarten and beyond. “Our early learning programs are designed to offer experiences that enhance and enrich each child’s cognitive, language, social, emotional, physical and creative development,” said ELC Executive Director Claudette Lindquist. “We believe that good childcare is good family care. However, our basic philosophy is one of freedom to learn, grow and make choices and we have structured the environment to reflect that belief.”

The ELC also prepares current Heritage students for their future careers through work-study opportunities that provide them valuable experience in their chosen fields. “We have employed social work and nursing students who perform a wide variety of important roles as assistants at the ELC,” said Lindquist. “They get to use what they’ve learned in the classroom here, earn a paycheck while in school, and obtain skills and experience coveted by employers.”

Heritage began construction of the new center in March and invited the community to watch the project’s progress through a camera connected to the university’s website (https://heritage.edu/eagle-cam/).

For more information, contact Claudette Lindquist at (509) 865-0723 or Lindquist_C@heritage.edu. For help with interviews, please contact Davidson Mance at (509) 969-6084 or Mance_D@heritage.edu.

# # #