Hardly Strictly Bluegrass not only brings great music to our neighborhood, but it also helped bring some needed funds to a couple of Richmond District elementary schools over the weekend.
On Saturday and Sunday, Lafayette Elementary (36th & Anza) and Argonne Elementary (17th & Cabrillo) both opened up their parking lots for concertgoers to help raise funds for their schools.
A group of parents staffed the parking lots, charging $25 per car for all day parking. And the $25 was considered a donation to the school, so it was tax-deductible for the parkers. Win-win!
RichmondSFBlog reader and Lafayette parent Cath tells me that her school raised $7,000 with their parking fundraiser. “I’m guessing Argonne had similar results — we sent overflow their way, and they sent theirs to us!”
These days, what school couldn’t use the extra money? Cath tells me the $7,000 from the Lafayette fundraiser will go to help make up for the $22,000 that was recently cut from their site budget.
Sarah B.
Why not do something like this every weekend? Or if not with individual vehicles seeking parking, with a farmer’s market. Why shut down a parking lot for a farmer’s market when you can turn an otherwise vacant lot *into* a farmer’s market? Seriously, that’s a win-win-win situation. Keep parking available for residents and visitors to the neighborhood; provide responsibly produced groceries for the neighborhood and beyond; and raise money for a school or a few schools (one for the market, others for parking???)
I realize that part of the fundraiser is probably a volunteer effort, and that volunteers are probably more plentiful for one time events than for weekly events. But even if that’s the reason for not taking advantage of these schools’ plentiful land ownership, it would be nice to actually hear that, rather than radio silence on why local parking lots go unused, farms go unsupported, and local businesses have potential revenue taken away. If people knew why, maybe they could help!
Hmm, let’s see if I can answer some of Zannie’s questions:
First, a minor point, Lafayette and Argonne parked cars on their play yards, not in a lot. We don’t actually have a parking lot at either school — teachers and staff have to find weekday street parking. The parking at both elementary schools was staffed by parent volunteers (8-10/day, I believe), and school district liability required a teacher/staff member to be there when the lot was open. Also, we had to obtain a pretty hefty liability insurance policy — wasn’t involved in that, but that may be a hurdle, too.
I, too, love the idea of using schools as community centers, for farmer’s markets, etc. I’m just not sure how to make it work. But thanks again to everyone in our neighborhood who helped out and who supports our local schools.