With center director Laurie Paul and regional manager Mahira Aleem beaming, and State Sen. Sharon Nelson helping, a handmade “ribbon” was cut this morning to officially dedicate West Seattle’s first Bright Horizons child-care center, the largest of three businesses on the ground floor of the new Link Apartments at 38th/Alaska in The Triangle. (BH and Link are WSB sponsors.) The center opened last month (here’s their photo gallery) and has been ramping up to get ready for this community celebration. One high-profile visitor, seen in our photo below with Sen. Nelson and center director Paul (who is a longtime West Seattleite, though till now she’d worked for BH in Bellevue), was West Seattle Chamber of Commerce CEO Patti Mullen:

Special guest stars today: The Not-Its, performing their bouncy “kindie rock” for some very enthusiastic young fans:

The Not-Its have a new album coming out in a little more than a week – Tuesday, June 28th – titled “Tag, You’re It.” Bright Horizons, meantime, is open Mondays-Fridays, and if you would like to find out more about their center, contact info can be found here. In addition to its extensive space on the north side of Link’s ground floor, it has outdoor playspace nearby, too.