Dear Oakland Parks and Recreation Supporter:
2016 has certainly seen its ups and downs, but through it all, we have kept working diligently to support and strengthen our local communities, by working to support our parks through capital projects, volunteer opportunities, and grants and scholarships.
Summer brought the Bay Area parks communities an unexpected loss with the sudden passing of Barry Weiss, the former president of the board of the Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation. Barry had deep parks roots in our community, and was a parks and recreation professional for all of his working life.
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We help to send hundreds of kids to camp every year.
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In an initiative led by his wife Ann, Barry's family, friends, and colleagues raised $13,000 for the Parks Foundation's Youth Scholarship Fund in honor of his memory. The funds have been used to help Oakland children from low-income families to attend safe, fun, and educational camps at our city's recreation centers during school breaks, including Thanksgiving and the current Holidays. Funds have also been set aside for the upcoming Spring break, in early April.
You can support all of the Oakland Parks and Recreation
Foundation's activities by donating today!
The Parks Foundation was awarded a grant in early 2016 to help build a new playground at Astro Park, located near the Lakeview Branch Library at Lake Merritt. After twenty years of heavy use by children from all over Oakland, the old playground was worn out and in need of an upgrade. Over 150 volunteers came together on Tuesday, December 6 to assemble and install the new playground equipment. By mid-afternoon, the work was complete. The new Astro Park playground should be opened for use by all of Oakland's children in early 2017, once the Ccty's Public Works department completes some ancillary work around the playground area.
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Oakland Parks Foundation Executive Director, Ken Lupoff gets out of the office, and gets to work helping to build a new playground!
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The Parks Foundation's 11th annual Love Your Parks Day event was held on Saturday, October 1. Foundation board members teamed up with park stewards and other volunteers to survey the condition of Oakland's parks. By the end of the day, the assembled group had surveyed over 100 parks.
The surveys are used to compile the Foundation's annual Community Report Card on the State of Maintenance of Oakland Parks, which is submitted to the City of Oakland. This critical Foundation initiative produces the only user survey that the city has access to regarding conditions in virtually all of its parks. The final report will soon be published and posted on the Parks Foundation website.
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| Stewardship Committee, Chair, Susan Montauk (far left), and some of the many volunteers at Love Your Parks Day! |
The Parks Foundation's diverse work would not be possible without your financial help. Our sincere thanks goes out to everyone in Oakland and beyond who have made year-end donations to the
Oakland
Parks and Recreation Foundation. If you haven't yet made a year-end tax deductible contribution to the Foundation, then please consider supporting our parks this holiday season.
To help, simply, go to our website, located at http://oaklandparks.org and click on the orange "Donate" button located on the upper right side of the page.
Thank you again for your support! Together we can ensure that Oakland's Parks and Recreation Centers are second-to-none!
Best wishes to all,
Ken
Ken Lupoff
Executive Director
Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation
Providing Financial and Volunteer Resources and Advocacy for Recreation Programs and Parks in Oakland.
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