Published 06-12-00
Submitted by Amgen
Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) today announced the opening of Camp Amgen, its newly expanded child care center that will provide high-quality care for more than 430 children ages 6 weeks to 5 years. The center, which houses 32 classrooms and 16 play yards in 44,856 square feet of space, is believed to be the largest corporate child care center in the United States. The new Camp Amgen will accommodate almost twice the number of children as the previous center, which was opened in 1992.
"Camp Amgen has been a highly valued benefit for Amgen staff and their families since it opened eight years ago," said Kevin Sharer, Amgen's President and Chief Executive Officer. "This new facility will enable many more children to learn and grow in close proximity to their parents. Parents are more productive knowing that their children are in a safe, positive and nurturing environment."
Despite its size, a great deal of emphasis was placed on the design of Camp Amgen to ensure an intimate care-giving approach consistent with high-quality child care. Each of the 32 classrooms is divided into small, intimate developmental stations with leading-edge equipment that stimulates the minds and imagination of young children. The center allows for small groupings of children and very low teacher/children ratios, ranging from one teacher with every three infants to one teacher with every nine preschool children.
The center is designed as a modified "village" with two houses named for their Northern and Southern Hemisphere motifs. The North House features classroom names, murals and decorations of animals typically found in cold weather such as penguins, seals and polar bears. The South House features warm-weather animals such as fish, turtles and monkeys. This design enables children to easily identify their own house and individual room within the facility.
The center is managed by Bright Horizons Family Solutions, Inc., the nation's leading provider of employer sponsored childcare. The company operates each of its centers according to the highest standards of excellence as defined by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and has the best record of accreditation from the NAEYC of any multi-site employer-sponsored workplace services provider in the country.
Amgen is a global biotechnology company that discovers, develops, manufactures and markets cost-effective human therapeutics based on advances in cellular and molecular biology.