Alaska Airlines Week of CARE with YSF

Last week, forty Alaska Airline employees volunteered at our Gateway Child Development Center as a part of their Week of CARE Initiative - a company-wide effort to give back to the community.  

From potting plants to building a playhouse, these volunteers poured their hearts into beautifying this space for our preschool-age youth. More than just providing a safe and clean place for them to play, the primary focus is to create strong emotional bonds between the child, families, and other children so that youth feel emotionally and physically safe in their environment to reach their highest potential. 

We know that a child’s kindergarten readiness is a critical determinant in future educational success, and South San Francisco residents face many challenges to getting their children ready to succeed in school, including:

• Across San Francisco, the average annual cost for preschool is $26,000, and 6% of South San Francisco residents live in poverty. 
• Availability and waitlists are the second largest barrier to accessing pre-school readiness programs.

In partnership with the City of South San Francisco, our Gateway Child Development Center offers early care and education to children ages three months to five years old. 

• 10 classrooms divided by age group serving children from 3 months up to 5 years of age.  
• An amazing team of ECE-accredited professionals speaking English, Cantonese, Mandarin and Spanish. 
• A philosophy of “Preschool for All” with financial assistance available to all eligible residents (an average reduction of $4,900 annually). 
•  84% of Y Pre-K students have literacy and learning skills necessary for kindergarten entry. 

We are honored to partner with Alaska Airlines in serving our communities. Over the last few years, Alaska Airlines has generously donated their time and philanthropic dollars to grow and support our youth-serving programs at the YMCA of San Francisco.  

One of Alaska Airlines’ core values is to be kindhearted, which means caring for the communities where they live and fly. This Week of Care from Oct. 9-13, 2023, included close to 20 different projects throughout Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Washington, Washington D.C., and Oregon.  As a result of these 20 projects, nearly 500 Alaska employees spent 1,200 hours on projects ranging from sorting donations for Maui wildfire victims to helping youth programs like ours. 

Thank you to Alaska Airlines for your continued support and to the volunteers for their time and contribution towards our center. Learn more about how you can get involved and volunteer at YSF at ymcasf.org/get-involved/volunteer. 

Here are some photos of Alaska Airlines’ fabulous volunteers at our site: 

Working on a sandbox project 

Washing windows

Building a Playhouse

Painting Furniture

Raking out the yard and laying tan bark

and much more!