Family/Business (Hardcover)

Our love of wild and beautiful places and our determination to save them began outside. We want the same for our children. This visual guide illustrates why Patagonia's on site child care center is a key component of our corporate mission and why providing high quality on site child care to working families is essential. In safe and engaging environments we support unstructured play where our children learn hand eye coordination, balance and mental agility. Anything that can be done indoors is better learned outdoors where physical strength, creativity and confidence develop. True to Patagonia's climbing roots we encourage risk as the children learn and grow in an atmosphere of trust. This book is the visual story of how one corporation provides the support working families need to preserve American ingenuity that begins in early childhood.Malinda Chouinard, with her husband, Yvon, is the founder of Patagonia, the outdoor clothing company, and its on site, corporate sponsored child care program, Great Pacific Child Development Center. Malinda earned her bachelor of arts degree, in art and nutrition, and her secondary level teaching credential from California State University, Fresno.Jennifer Ridgeway was the first Director of Marketing and Advertising at Patagonia and, as the first Director of Photography, is the author of Unexpected: A Retrospective of Patagonia's Outdoor Photography. She is also the co founder of Patagonia's on site child care center, GPCDC. Her three children were among the first to attend, and her grandchild is enrolled in the center today. Jennifer earned her master of arts, in psychology, at University of Oregon.