BOONE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE FOUNDATION | Childcare Initiative White Paper
CHILDCARE FOR CHILDCARE WORKERS A Watauga County Initiative to Support the Early Childhood Workforce Boone Area Chamber of Commerce Foundation | 2025
$75,000+
18
22
Total Funds Raised & Distributed
Childcare Workers Assisted w/ Tuition Aid
Children Covered by Tuition Assistance
100% of Watauga County Licensed Childcare Centers Supported
Executive Summary In the fall of 2025, the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce Foundation (BACCF) launched a firstof-its-kind initiative in Watauga County: a privately funded campaign to provide tuition assistance to childcare workers who themselves have children enrolled in licensed childcare programs. What began as a $40,000 campaign to support the childcare workforce grew into a two-phase effort that ultimately directed more than $75,000 to childcare centers and workers across Watauga County. The initiative unfolded against a backdrop of mounting state and national urgency around childcare access. Governor Josh Stein’s newly formed North Carolina Task Force on Child Care and Early Education had identified providing childcare for childcare workers as a legislative priority. Then, from October 1 to November 12, 2025, the longest federal government shutdown in American history disrupted subsidy payments and Department of Social Services checks to childcare providers across North Carolina, threatening the very centers the BACCF had set out to support. The community’s response was swift and decisive. A $50,000 gift from Missy Harrill, owner of Foscoe Companies, enabled the BACCF to pivot and provide direct stabilization payments to every licensed childcare center and afterschool program in Watauga County — a move that kept providers financially viable through one of the most disruptive periods in recent memory for the industry. This white paper documents the full arc of the initiative: the problem it sought to address, the community partnerships and philanthropy that powered it, the unexpected crisis that changed its scope, and the lessons learned for Watauga County and for North Carolina.
Boone Area Chamber of Commerce Foundation | www.boonechamber.com/foundation | ethan@boonechamber.com