Tracy Rubstello, director of development for the Bridge Receiving Center (background), talks about the home being created as a 30-day refuge for children who are first entering foster care. (Dan Bates / The Herald)

Tracy Rubstello, director of development for the Bridge Receiving Center (background), talks about the home being created as a 30-day refuge for children who are first entering foster care. (Dan Bates / The Herald)

Soft-landing place planned for children entering foster care

The Bridge Receiving Center is remodeling a house on Cedar Springs Camp property near Lake Stevens.

Drivers zipping past a house being remodeled along Highway 92 near Lake Stevens don’t see what it really is. Founders of a nonprofit called Bridge Receiving Center are creating a new kind of first stop for children entering foster care.

“We train social workers. We train foster parents. We train everybody in this process except the kids,” said Kathleen Hamer, co-founder of the Bridge Receiving Center.

About three years ago, she and her husband Dan Hamer, senior associate pastor of Overlake Christian Church in Redmond, decided to try to improve what they see as a system that doesn’t work for many kids.

“They’re taken out of a traumatic situation, and it’s ‘Good luck, here’s your new family,’” Kathleen Hamer said.

The Woodinville couple came to Washington a decade ago from Southern California. There, they were part of Orange County’s Saddleback Church, and were involved in family camps.

Putting two ideas together — the camp experience and help for kids who’ve been removed from their homes — they started Bridge Receiving Center. Their nonprofit is partnering with churches, the state and Olive Crest, a nonprofit foster-care and adoption agency.

By early next year, they expect to open the center to six foster children, ages 6 to 10, for stays of up to 30 days. The house is planned as a soft-landing place for children who will be going to foster families.

With a 30-day stay, the hope is that there’s time for a child to be placed in the most appropriate home, possibly with a family member rather than strangers.

“This is an entirely new concept in foster care, and we are so excited about it,” said Tracy Rubstello, Bridge Receiving Center’s director of development.

They’re starting small with the Lochsloy-area home, but have a big vision.

Bridge Receiving Center leases the three-bedroom house from Cedar Springs Camp, which is just down the road. The camp, a nonprofit with ties to Bothell’s Cedar Park Church, owns 150 acres where the house is in addition to its own 150-acre site, Rubstello said. The properties are connected, and plans call for foster children to be able to sometimes use the camp’s facilities.

The idea is to start children in foster care in a camp-like setting. “Why can’t we take kids to camp?” Kathleen Hamer said.

There are hundreds of children to be helped. Debra Johnson, communication director for the state’s Department of Children,Youth, and Families, said that as of Friday there were 5,079 foster homes licensed in Washington, including 480 in Snohomish County.

Kathleen Hamer, who has a master’s degree in marriage, family and child counseling, said that in King County alone, about 45 children enter foster care each month.

The Bridge Receiving Center’s first residents, six boys, will be part of its pilot program. Eventually, the nonprofit intends to serve boys and girls ages 6 to 17. And the nonprofit envisions as many as 50 kids in multiple houses on the 150-acre property someday.

The Hamers and Rubstello have all been involved in organizations that help children and families in Africa. The Hamers adopted two boys from Kenya. One of them was alone on the street at age 4. Rubstello was part of a nonprofit that served women in Rwanda.

It was an experience, Kathleen Hamer said, that sparked their desire to help foster children. The Hamers had volunteered with an agency in Seattle that helped homeless young people. Some kids came to their home for Thanksgiving one year.

Hamer said she heard them comparing how many foster placements they’d had. For one girl, it was 20 homes; another had been in 30. Hamer said she was stunned to hear a boy say he’d been in 50 foster homes.

She talked to her husband about finding a way to make a difference.

They aren’t doing it alone. Jeff Judy, executive director of Olive Crest in the Northwest, is serving on Bridge Receiving Center’s board. Olive Crest, which has a contract with the state, will be the new nonprofit’s licensing agency, Kathleen Hamer said.

She has been in touch with Connie Lambert-Eckel, the state’s assistant secretary of child welfare field operations, and also with Everett-based Hand in Hand, which provides 72-hour stays for children coming into foster care through its Safe Place program.

Placements will come through the state, she said. There will always be at least two staff people at the house, she said, and a program manager will have a master’s degree in social work. “Everyone will be trained in trauma-informed care,” she said. “These kids have experienced trauma — any child in foster care has experienced trauma, or they wouldn’t be there.”

On Thursday, Aaron Tally, the nonprofit’s building project manager, was working on the house with 16-year-old Leo Fischer, a volunteer. They were digging in an area that soon will be a new therapeutic playroom, Rubstello said.

Children who’ll use that playroom “need to have a place to land, to help them grieve before we send them on to the next step,” Rubstello said.

And what if those kids want to stay?

That’s something Kathleen Hamer said they’re working on with therapists. The goal, she said, is for kids to feel safe and connected — and for their time at the center to seem like a stay at camp.

“We want it to be fun, something positive that they take with them,” she said.

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.

Learn more

The Bridge Receiving Center is a nonprofit creating a site near Lake Stevens to provide a place for children first entering foster care to stay for up to 30 days. Information: http://bridgereceivingcenter.org/

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

Snohomish County Health Department Director Dennis Worsham on Tuesday, June 11, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Snohomish County Health Department director tapped as WA health secretary

Dennis Worsham became the first director of the county health department in January 2023. His last day will be July 3.

Police Cmdr. Scott King answers questions about the Flock Safety license plate camera system on Thursday, June 5, 2025 in Mountlake Terrace, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Mountlake Terrace approves Flock camera system after public pushback

The council approved the $54,000 license plate camera system agreement by a vote of 5-2.

Cascadia College Earth and Environmental Sciences Professor Midori Sakura looks in the surrounding trees for wildlife at the North Creek Wetlands on Wednesday, June 4, 2025 in Bothell, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Cascadia College ecology students teach about the importance of wetlands

To wrap up the term, students took family and friends on a guided tour of the North Creek wetlands.

Community members gather for the dedication of the Oso Landslide Memorial following the ten-year remembrance of the slide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
The Daily Herald garners 6 awards from regional journalism competition

The awards recognize the best in journalism from media outlets across Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.

Edmonds Mayor Mike Rosen goes through an informational slideshow about the current budget situation in Edmonds during a roundtable event at the Edmonds Waterfront Center on Monday, April 7, 2025 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Edmonds mayor recommends $19M levy lid lift for November

The city’s biennial budget assumed a $6 million levy lid lift. The final levy amount is up to the City Council.

A firefighting helicopter carries a bucket of water from a nearby river to the Bolt Creek Fire on Saturday, Sep. 10, 2022, on U.S. 2 near Index, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Snohomish County property owners can prepare for wildfire season

Clean your roofs, gutters and flammable material while completing a 5-foot-buffer around your house.

(City of Everett)
Everett’s possible new stadium has a possible price tag

City staff said a stadium could be built for $82 million, lower than previous estimates. Bonds and private investment would pay for most of it.

Jennifer Humelo, right, hugs Art Cass outside of Full Life Care Snohomish County on Wednesday, May 28, 2025 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
‘I’ll lose everything’: Snohomish County’s only adult day health center to close

Full Life Care in Everett, which supports adults with disabilities, will shut its doors July 19 due to state funding challenges.

Signs hang on the outside of the Early Learning Center on the Everett Community College campus on Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021 in Everett, Wa. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Court docs: Everett Community College decided on ELC closure in March

The college didn’t notify parents or teachers until May that it would close the early education center.

The City of Edmonds police, court and council chambers complex on Thursday, Dec. 28, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Edmonds Municipal Court focuses on Blake cases ahead of state funding cuts

Starting July 1, the state will have 80% less funding for refunds and administrative costs involved in vacating felony drug possession cases.

The Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, which is one of the largest immigrant detention facilities in the western U.S. (Grace Deng/Washington State Standard)
WA looks to strengthen safety net for children whose parents are deported

Detained immigrant parents worried who will pick their children up from school.… Continue reading

Community members find dead body in Edmonds park

Edmonds police investigated the scene at Southwest County Park and determined there is no current threat to public safety.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.