Olympic College and the Bremer Trust will celebrate the groundbreaking of the new Sophia Bremer Child Development Center at the Bremer Student Center on the Bremerton campus on Thursday, Oct. 22.

The Sophia Bremer Child Development Center (SBCDC) is Olympic College’s newest facility under development. It is designed to meet the growing demand for childcare and Early Childhood Education (ECE) at the college. The SBCDC will relocate all of the child development programs from the Health Occupations Building on the Bremerton campus, consolidating services in one building.

The Bremer Trust donated $2 million as seed money for the project in 2008 and gave another $500,000 to add on a wing for the ECE program in September. The state of Washington provided another $2 million through the state’s matching grant program and the college allocated $500,000 to the project. The entire cost of construction for the new facility is an estimated $4.5 million. The Sophia Bremer Child Development Center is scheduled to be open by the start of Winter Quarter 2011. The new childcare center will accommodate approximately 190 children.

The facility is named after Sophia Bremer, one of Bremerton’s pioneer founders, in honor of the generous ongoing support from the Bremer Trust.