Affordable, quality child care can be a genuine lifesaver. That’s no exaggeration. Lack of funds can lead to lack of child care, which can lead to missed doctor appointments or even missed cancer treatments.
Dr. Allen Gabriel, the founder of the Pink Lemonade Project, “had a young mom with three little daughters who was missing appointments,” said the project’s development director, Leslie Stose. The woman had already hit up her family and friends for child care help, and everybody was tapped out. So was Mom’s bank account. So she started skipping important medical visits.
The Pink Lemonade Project board “started brainstorming what we could do,” Stose said. It studied child care costs in the area and it canvassed the major child care providers to find out: Would you support a special as-needed drop-in program for the children of women going to cancer appointments? Would you open a slot for such children?
“Absolutely we would do this” is how they responded, she said.
So last spring, the Pink Lemonade Project launched its new Lemon Drops program — providing discounted child care for breast cancer patients undergoing treatment. Hourly rates for drop-in child care in this area tend to start at about $10 per hour and rise substantially from there; Lemon Drops is offering to pay $10 per hour per child — from six weeks to 12 years — to local facilities that have agreed to participate in the program.
Normally, Stose said, moms in the program will be asked to pay what they can afford — $5 to $10 an hour, she said — but that can be adjusted or waived. “If it’s really beyond their means, we’ll pay the whole cost,” she said.
Here’s how it works:
• Moms who want to apply for the program should fill out the application at the Pink Lemonade Project website: www.pinklemonadeproject.org/lemon-drops. Please make your request at least 10 days before your scheduled appointment — otherwise, finding an opening could be difficult.
• The application asks whether you can afford $10 an hour or need more financial assistance. If you need more help, it’s your responsibility to call the number provided.
• Pink Lemonade will verify your medical appointment and determine additional financial help if necessary.
• Once all is confirmed, Pink Lemonade Project will contact you to provide a list of available facilities.
• From that list, you contact the facility directly to schedule the child care appointment.
Stose and Pink Lemonade Project are darned proud of this helpful idea, she said. “We tried to sign up an assortment of facilities that are easy for moms to get to,” she said. “We were so pleased at the reaction. It was very positive. We’ve got child care facilities all over the place in Clark County and Portland. They are all licensed and professional so moms can have peace of mind focusing on themselves and their healing.”
Do children being dropped off for this reason need some extra TLC from staff? Maybe, Stose said. It depends on what they understand and what their usual routine is; it’s equally possible, she said, that a special visit to a new place — with new toys and new friends — can be a great treat and a welcome break from the ordinary.
There’s just one missing piece of Lemon Drops: participants. Nobody has signed up yet.
“We are all set up and ready to go,” said Stose. “You could call us tomorrow and we’d get the ball rolling.”
Call Stose to learn more about Lemon Drops at 360-216-7333.
