Child care struggle inspires donation

From the Detroit Free Press

No one needs to tell Kelly Rossman-McKinney how tough it is to find quality child care.

Like many working parents, Rossman-McKinney, a single mother of four, said the search for caregivers has challenged her most of her career. She started what is now the Rossman Group, a public relations/marketing firm, in Lansing 20 years ago as she raised her children, now ages 11, 13, 15 and 29.

To mark the anniversary of the business, she chose to do something with lasting impact: Donate the $20,000 she had earmarked for a party to a program that supplements day care costs: the Women's Caring Program.
       
"I don't care how much money a woman makes, there are always day care problems. Through the years I have lived through just about every scenario," she said.

Started in 1979, the Women's Caring Program helps pay for child care for Michigan women. Since 1995, it has raised more than $1.5 million to subsidize child care for 600 families through the ChildCare Commitment program, administered by the Michigan 4C Association.

WCP President Carol Walters opens her Milford home every July to 800 women for the Twilight Gathering, the organization's annual fund-raiser.