NationsBank Business 98 Magazine
December/January 1998
by Chuck Savage

After watching a new mother cry for 36 hours upon learning that her baby had been born with a medical problem, registered nurse Gail Johnson vowed to alleviate the suffering of working parents with sick children.

Johnson's goal was to start a child-care facility where special needs children could play happily with peers. She imagined working parents dropping off sick kids at a separate building where the children could recuperate under a nurse's care.

The result? Rainbow Station in Richmond, VA.

Founded in 1989, Rainbow station has grown quickly. The company now has three childcare centers. In June 1997, the U.S. Small Business Administration named Johnson "Small Business Person of the Year" for Virginia.

"It's kind of scary," says Johnson. "Everything I imagined has come true."

"When I was on the faculty of the Medical College of Virginia, I visited many hospitals and doctors' office with my students. Everywhere I went, I heard about parents in crisis trying to make it in a two-earner world. When their children developed chronic or acute health problems, they panicked. No child-care center would accept them.

I wanted to offer a solution for ill children. The ones with chronic illnesses would be integrated with well children. Kids with acute childhood illnesses would be isolated in an infirmary.

I've done that at Rainbow Station. Parents of kids with chronic health problems know their children will be well cared for by our on-staff nurse. Having a mixture of special needs and well children enhances diversity in the classroom. About 10 percent of our children have special needs -- from autistic children and those with Down's syndrome to those with tracheotomies. These conditions are routine for nurses, but to the untrained they can be terrifying.

On The Road To Recovery
We treat about 3,500 mildly ill children a year at our Get Well Places: infirmaries staffed with a nurse and isolated from the regular childcare centers. About half the children come from our own centers and the other half from the community at large. We have contracts with several local companies who subsidize the $40-a-day fee for their employees.

At the Get Well Place the structure is more laid back than in the main child-care center. Children can spend the whole day on a cot if they want or watch videos.

It Takes A Village
When I was a little girl, I came home from school, had a snack and then went out to play. Nobody knew where I was. Nowadays, children are under constant surveillance. I thought, 'Can't we give older children more freedom?', And that's how I came up with the Village, our afterschool program. The Village has a "village green," complete with Astroturf and a sidewalk. Around it are storefronts with different activity rooms. The Apothecary is for science experiments; the Cafe is for cooking projects. There's also a library, theater, art gallery and arcade. Children choose where they want to go.

Believed In Me
NationsBank helped finance my second and third centers. The bank helped me get an SBA guaranteed loan and then a FMHA guaranteed loan.

In 1996, NationsBank financed the Village without any government guarantee. It felt so good to know I could get a loan on my own.

NationsBank has always believed in me."