Gentex honored by state for workplace childcare leadership

ZEELAND — For assembly line workers on the second shift, finding someone to watch the kids after 5 p.m. has long been a quiet crisis in West Michigan.

Gentex Corp., Ottawa County’s largest industrial employer, decided to stop waiting for someone else to fix it.

On Thursday, state officials in East Lansing recognized the auto-parts manufacturer alongside eight other employers, towns, and nonprofits as “2026 Child Care Champions.”  

The award stems from Gentex’s investment in a 43,000-square-foot, nature-based early learning center on its Zeeland campus — a facility designed not just for typical daytime care, but specifically equipped to cover infants and second-shift manufacturing operations.

The award comes as skyrocketing child care costs continue to drag on the state's workforce. 

In Michigan, infant care now costs an average of $10,023 a year, according to the 2025 Kids Count in Michigan Data Book. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services considers care affordable only if it stays under 7 percent of a family's income — a threshold met by just one in four Michigan families with infants.

"Families are experiencing many financial pressures in this economy and yet are in need of child care to be able to go to work," said Alicia Guevara, CEO of the Early Childhood Investment Corporation in a press release. The corporation is one of the groups behind the state awards.

While state programs like PreK for All and the MI Tri-Share pilot attempt to address the issue, officials say private employers are having to step into roles traditionally left to the market.

Gentex partnered with the local nonprofit ODC Network to build and staff the center. By offering on-site care tailored to actual plant shifts, the company cut straight through the chronic absenteeism and high turnover that often stem from unreliable care late in the day.

"Child care is deeply connected to the strength of our communities and the success of our workforce," said Kathy Szenda Wilson, founder and co-executive director at Pulse at the W.E. Upjohn Institute, which co-sponsored the awards along with MiLEAP.

Other West Michigan communities took notice. Down the road in Kent County, Plainfield Township earned its own recognition Thursday for slashing municipal red tape to help prospective providers open roughly 40 new licensed child care slots.

Additional statewide honorees recognized in East Lansing included:

• Northern Lakes Economic Alliance and Manthei Group in Petoskey converted a vacant church into Little Roots Childcare, creating 36 new licensed spaces.
• The City of Kalamazoo provided grants and small-business training to local providers while expanding participation in state subsidy programs.
• The Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation directed an $850,000 package of loans and grants to help Apple Playschools add 47 childcare slots.
• United Way of Bay County redeveloped a downtown site in Bay City to build a center serving up to 50 children.
• Lapeer County Medical Care Facility covered 50 percent of its employees' child care expenses at its Suncrest Daycare center.
• Wacousta Cooperative Preschool and Grand Ledge Public Schools repurposed an empty rural elementary school into a multi-use community center with 33 child care slots.
• The Detroit Regional Partnership Healthcare Committee created an employer task force playbook to solve care coverage for hospital staff on off-hour shifts.

During the ceremony, the Small Business Association of Michigan also presented the Child Care Business Excellence Award to Jacqueline Taylor, founder of Little Dreamers Early Learning Center near Lansing, following a recent 3,000-square-foot expansion of her center.

— Heather VanDyke covers northern Ottawa County for the Ottawa News Network. Contact her at hvandyke@ottawanewsnetwork.org.