For years, families in Pomeroy have driven at least 30 minutes to find childcare.
Now, a community-led effort is working to bring those services back to town.
For nearly two years, nonprofit organization Pomeroy Community Connect has been working toward fundraising to establish a licensed childcare center – one that hasn’t existed in the rural town for years. With awarded funds and a former funeral home donated for the project, organizers hope to open the center by 2027.
Alesia Ruchert, the nonprofit’s childcare navigator, said Pomeroy’s only childcare center survived the COVID-19 pandemic but closed soon after over staffing ratio challenges.
“The number of enrolled at the childcare facility were now at school age. There were not enough young children needing childcare coming in to fill the void of the kids that had moved on to elementary school,” Ruchert said.
Still, 2024 and 2025 Garfield County Child Care Needs Assessments highlight a growing demand for child care in the area. In the 2024 assessment, 61 people responded to the survey, 93% of whom lived in Pomeroy. Among respondents, 87% reported that they or someone in their household had to take time off work because of child care challenges, 79% said they or someone in their household had to limit work hours, and 27% reported quitting a job because of child care difficulties.
Similarly, the 2025 assessment underscores this unmet need. Of the 47 participants who reported residing in Pomeroy, 100% indicated that they have or know a child who would use a local child care center if one were available.
Martha Lanman, public health administrator for Garfield County, noted that unless families rely on relatives, the closest childcare options are a drive to Clarkston or Lewiston. She also said this has affected both the hospital and its ability to attract potential employees.
“Our hospital has mentioned it multiple times, the barrier of not having childcare when they go on the hiring process,” Lanman said. “It really limits the length of time that they might work at the hospital.”
Ruchert said they have been able to get a total of $200,000 in funds for the center, including $70,000 from the Washington State Department of Commerce.
But the most unanticipated donation, she said, was a former funeral home, which has relieved them of having to find a location.
‘It’s kind of a full-circle story’
Lisa Larrabee-Sutherland, co-owner of Richardson Brown Funeral Homes in Pomeroy, said she and her husband, Tom Sutherland, were toying with the idea of selling the building when they learned about the childcare project.
“Our friend and longtime funeral director with our company, Jerry Bartlow, told us about the Pomeroy childcare project,” Larrabee-Sutherland said. “We talked it over and decided to offer it to the childcare project.”
She said the donation was made in honor of Jerry Bartlow’s late wife, Donna Bartlow, who died from breast cancer 27 years ago, leaving him with their three kids.
Larrabee-Sutherland highlighted that before Donna Bartlow’s death, she handmade special gifts for each of her children to be given to them on special days in the future, such as high school and college graduations, and their wedding day.
“Donna was a remarkable, strong and positive woman. We thought it fitting to have such a wonderful mother’s name associated with the Pomeroy childcare center,” Larrabee-Sutherland said.
Jerry Bartlow said he was surprised when he heard about the donation, adding he was grateful for their kindness.
“It was so wonderful. It made me cry, actually,” he said.
Jerry Bartlow said his late wife was constantly involved in town and held a church group for kids every Wednesday. Sometimes they would go swimming; other times they would do crafts, he said.
“She was really involved with kids,” Jerry Bartlow said. “In fact, when she passed away, she left her retirement to children’s ministries.”
Ruchert said that in honor of the donation, the facility will be named Donna’s Mama Bear Daycare and Learning Center.
“We sat down with the family and talked about Donna and all of the things that made her who she was and how she impacted the community, and specifically the lives of children in the community,” Ruchert said. “The family helped us create the name for the future child care.”
Larrabee-Sutherland said she hopes the donation will help families with young and school-age children better balance their home and work lives.
Ruchert said the project team has been engaging with the community through town halls, a bi-monthly newsletter, and a Parent Advisory Council to help guide curriculum and policy development.
“It’s kind of a full-circle story where a building that was previously used to celebrate the end of life is now a building that will be used to celebrate and nurture the beginnings of lives,” Ruchert said. “We think that’s pretty stinking cool.”
