YAKIMA, Wash. -- Consider it a challenge.

Ready by Five announced Wednesday that it received a $50,000 grant. And the donor, Pointer Living Trust, is asking community members to match it.

Half of the grant will go to Ready by Five's capital campaign to build an early child care education center in east Yakima.

The other half will go to a scholarship endowment fund to help children stay enrolled at the center if their parents become unemployed or cannot remain in school or job training.

Construction on the center is slated to start next spring. Meantime, educators are in their second year of programming in east Yakima.

Ready by Five is an early learning initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Thrive by Five Washington and the Washington State Department of Early Learning.

The project is designed to strengthen learning opportunities in east Yakima for children from birth to age 5, so they will enter kindergarten ready for success at school.

Educare of Yakima, the early learning center, is part of the initiative. It's partially funded by the Gates Foundation.

But Ready by Five needs to raise $2 million to build the center. And the Pointer family is asking Yakima-area residents to match its $50,000 grant, made on behalf of Ami and Mia Peterson in memory of Doris L. Pointer.

Donations can be made online at www.ReadybyFive.org or mailed to 501 W. Lincoln Ave, Suite C, Yakima, WA 98902 ATTN: Helen Marieskind/Pointer Challenge Grant.