Plans for our 10th Anniversary Party are rapidly taking shape. If you haven’t already done so, please check out our new 10th Anniversary Celebration blog for details. The concept we’re pursuing is to make this an “Oakland-Centric” celebration of our diversity featuring local foods, beers, wines and Oakland-based musicians. David Sturdevant and Eric Hughes have played major roles in scheduling the entertainment and four local bands have already signed on for the October 20th party. I’m especially pleased to have Jim Grantham’s Jazz Quartet on board since his group performed at the park’s opening day. Although nothing’s definite, there’s also a possibility that we will have additional events on Friday and/or Saturday — but, currently, our focus is largely on the 20th.
Our Planning Committee is meeting tomorrow (Monday, July 1) at my home and we’d love to have you join us — particularly, if you have experience with event planning, fundraising, sales, graphic design, and so forth. We start with an informal meal at 7:00 pm. For directions and “dinner reservations”, please send an email to info@splashpad.sitedistrict.com. If you work for (or know of) an individual or corporation that may be interested in becoming a sponsor, please email us at the same address. Event sponsorships are going to be absolutely critical considering what we’re likely to be spending for musicians, a full stage, sound equipment and a host of other equipment.
While we’re busy planning the celebration, we’re continuing on a parallel track to do what we can to spruce up the park as much as we possibly can before October 20. In addition, we’re also about to reach out to potential partners in our proposed expansion of the California Native plant bed. If you’re not already on our gardening volunteer email list, please send an email to the above address with “Garden Volunteer” on the subject line.
While looking for an entirely unrelated document in my email archives, I recently came across this early edition of the Splash Pad Newsletter dated December 15, 2004. I’d completely forgotten that Michael Zelner (a neighborhood IT consultant, musician and photographer) and David Gans (another neighborhood musician and photographer best known, perhaps, as the host of the Grateful Dead Hour) had signed us up for the SplashPad.org domain. For me, ten years ago, this was a big deal as I didn’t have a clue as to how one registered a domain name. In any case, heartfelt thanks to David and Michael –without whom we may have ended up SplishSplash.org or something equally inappropriate.