Great Bay Kids

Great Bay Kids is one of the largest non-profit providers of early childhood education in New Hampshire. Through our two centers in Exeter and Portsmouth and a robust after-school care program, we provide quality early childhood education and school-age enrichment programs to over 500 children each year.  

As a non-profit program, we rely on the support of our community to keep our tuition rates competitive while continuing to provide high-quality care and support for our students as well as competitive wages, benefits, and professional development to our faculty and staff. Philanthropy also helps to defray the cost of care for students utilizing state assistance and for families in need or facing short-term hardships. 

We provide daily breakfast, lunch, and snacks throughout our classrooms and breakfast and snacks at our school-age programs, which follow the guidelines of USDA and CACFP. We also provide many of the essentials throughout the day, such as baby wipes, diaper creams, sunscreen, bug spray, and formula. We strive to provide no-cost enrichment activities throughout the year, including partnering with storytellers, wildlife encounters, musicians, and yoga instructors to expose students to a wide range of experiences. The costs of these essentials and programs add up, and we rely on fundraising support to provide them without increasing the burden on families.  

There are strong links between participating in high-quality early childhood education programming and future success. At a time when care is increasingly more expensive and challenging to access, Great Bay Kids has proudly provided affordable access to the greater Seacoast since 1967. 

Thank you for helping us to make our 7th year of participating in NH Gives the biggest yet!

Who We Are

Great Bay Kids' Company, Inc. operates as a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization “dedicated to providing quality early childhood education and school age enrichment programs for children.” Our philosophy is that 'The Child Comes First'. Our goal through programming is to help each child develop a strong feeling of self-esteem and to provide for all aspects of the child's development: physical, social, intellectual, and emotional.
GBKC is designated as a “Licensed Plus” program by the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, and is registered to participate in the DHHS Child Care Scholarship Program to serve children from families with low-and moderate-incomes. We are licensed by the NH Department of Health and Human Services to serve over 500 children through all of our programs, with sites operating in Newmarket, Portsmouth (Pease) and Exeter.
Great Bay Kids’ Company, Inc. was originally incorporated in 1967 in Newmarket as the Newmarket Community Action Council for Day Care Centers, Inc. as a non-profit organization. The agency name was changed in 1980 to the Newmarket/Exeter Child Care Center, Inc., and again in 1997 to Great Bay Kids’ Company, Inc. to better reflect expanded programming in the region.
As the need for childcare grew, program services expanded to an Exeter site in 1975. GBKC recently completed construction of a new 13,500 square foot, state-of-the art childcare facility to offer expanded services for area families on a new building on Epping Road in Exeter. In addition, GBKC provides school age care in elementary school locations in Exeter (2 schools) and Newfields (1 school). In 2010 the agency leased a facility housed at the Pease International Tradeport in Portsmouth where we serve over 200 children ages 6 weeks to 5 years of age. We own our center in Newmarket on Simmons Lane.
Over 500 families utilize the three centers and two in school after school care programs at Newfields Elementary and Exeter Elementary schools. GBKC has an active volunteer Board consisting of seven members; Mark Paige, Rob Harbeson, Laura Leber, Irene Lechance, Katie Ventura, Marc Fornier and Jessica Lyons. We have a very active Fundraising Committee that plans special events at each center and center-wide to help us achieve our budgetary goals.