The Future of Bridle Trails is now a little more secure. On Thursday, May 15th, 2003, my husband, Donald, and I appeared before the State Parks and Recreation Commission in Walla Walla to present the Bridle Trails Park Foundation's partnership agreement with the State for their approval. After some fine tuning with the help of the Asst. Attorney General, we arrived at an agreement with State Parks that we could all live with. It was a win-win situation for all concerned.

Our thanks to all those individuals and organizations who wrote to the Park Commission in support of this agreement and those who have worked so tirelessly to achieve this milestone. Details>

The basic points in the agreement state: the Parks Commission will keep Bridle Trails Park off their closure list and will continue to manage, operate and maintain it as a State Park in accordance with the levels of service adopted by the Commission, as they exist now or as they may be amended, for the State Parks system generally for a term of 40 years. For this assurance, the Foundation has agreed to make annual donations to the Commission for the benefit of Bridle Trails State Park.

Our donations will start small at first and, over the next 5 years, will increase to a participatory level which is defined as "up to 50% of the uncovered operating costs of Bridle Trails State Park". If there are any years where the State does not need our money to help pay for the operating costs of Bridle Trails, then we would make a minimum donation of $4,000 which would be earmarked for some capital improvement at Bridle Trails.

Donations to-date have gotten us off to a good start. However, 4-5 years down the road we will probably need to pay between $25,000 - $40,000 a year. To do this, we need to raise somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 to 1 1/2 million dollars over the next few years so we can make our commitment payments from the interest on what we collect. Our goal is to make this Foundation an on-going, living entity, not just a static emergency fund drive.

With this agreement, we have reached a major milestone in our work, but our work has only just begun. The Foundation is looking for people who are willing to work with us, to chair committees, to donate services, to help staff fund-raising events, etc., etc., in order to help us reach our goal of making this Foundation an on-going, living entity, not just a static emergency fund drive. Keep in mind -- if the time comes when we can no longer keep our end of the bargain with the Parks Commission, they will be free to terminate the agreement and we'll be right back where we started from.

One of our first events will be a big, community Open House and formal signing of the agreement in the Park in the near future. Details have not been solidified as yet, but watch for flyers, posters and check the web site for more details.

There will also be a Bridle View Community Garage Sale on Saturday, June 14th, from 8am to 3pm at 6343 135th Ave NE. Donations of tack, clothes, furniture, kids toys, yard stuff, etc., can be dropped off between June 1st and June 13th. All proceeds from this sale will be donated to the Foundation. So, clean your closets, . . . nothing is too big or too small. And, if you can't donate, then come and shop. You'll be doing your park a favor.

Other ways of helping us grow include: seeking one of the realtors who has agreed to donate part of their commission for sales of houses where one of the parties to the sale asks them to donate to our cause. So far 2 realtors from Coldwell Banker Bain, Beth Billington from the Bellevue office and Bob Quinn from the Kirkland office, have agreed to do this as has Dana Kohut of the Bellevue Way John L. Scott office. And there is the Gift Matching program from the list of companies which can be found on our web site.