At the end of our first year we are pleased to report that we have successfully raised just over $50,000. Not a bad start in our trek towards a million dollars with which to build an endowment to fund our annual donation to State Parks in exchange for their keeping it open and operating in the face of ever shrinking state funds.

The general public (you) has been great in helping us come this far. Over the past year we have successfully negotiated approval of our agreement with the State and have seen the results of two very successful fund raising events. Over the next few months we will be taking some time out to expand our Board of Trustees, get some much needed education in data base management and donor tracking, and to seek professional direction on how to hold even bigger and better fund raisers in the future.

To bring you up to date, the Bridle View garage sale held at the home of Jeff and Patty Allen on Saturday, June 14th, was stupendous. Patty started receiving donated items from June 1 and they just kept coming. Neighbors put in hours and hours of their time to help sort and price items to be sold. On the day of the sale many more people from this neighborhood and the surrounding community came to work at the sale itself.

Buyers started arriving at 6:30 a.m. and we shut down at 4:00 p.m. When the money was counted, Patty had taken in nearly $4,000. Patty rounded that up and wrote a check for that amount to the Foundation. As a Microsoft family, the Allen’s donation will be matched through the Microsoft Matching Gifts program, making $8,000 in one day a most significant fundraiser. But, it could not have happened without the heroic efforts of all the neighbors and supporters from around the community. Everyone should be very proud of the results of their efforts that day.

Two weeks later, came our “Party in the Park”. Another whopping success! We started out wanting to celebrate a formal signing of the agreement between the Foundation and State Parks, and we wanted a celebration that would bring both horsey and non-horsey neighbors into the park so they could see what we are fighting for.

We decided to hold a 5K Fun Run/Walk, then added a pancake breakfast, some horsey demonstrations, a poker ride, kids activities with pony rides (to cultivate some possible new horse enthusiasts), guided nature walks and a raffle featuring 2 beautiful hand made and donated quilts as well as a season’s State Parks parking pass. And, of course, this was all done to showcase the formal signing ceremony where Rex Derr, State Director of Parks and Recreation read a proclamation of our 40 year agreement in front of a huge crowd including Senator Luke Esser and State Representative Ross Hunter as well as local elected dignitaries and the media.

We wanted to keep expenses down as we didn’t know how many people to expect with just a few weeks notice. There were committees in charge of each of the different activities and they all did such a marvelous job getting volunteers to help them and getting or helping pay for little things that would help make their activity more attractive.

To our great surprise we wound up with 127 runners, we fed over 240 people, we sold over 100 t-shirts, and we sold over 63 poker hands for the poker ride. After all the bills were paid, we were thrilled to find we had made over $5,200. WOW !

Neither the Garage Sale nor the “Party in the Park” would have been nearly as successful as they were if it weren’t for the more than 60 wonderful volunteers who donated their time and energy to support our beautiful Bridle Trails Park. And, all the volunteers’ time would have been a waste if it hadn’t been for all those who attended and opened their wallets in support of their efforts. Thank you all for your help, your support, and your donations. It just proves that together we can, and will keep Bridle Trails Park open for generations to come. And, don’t forget, we’ve made a good start, but we will need your continued support and donations to reach that million dollar mark.

Remember, the Holidays will be coming soon, a gift to Bridle Trails in someone’s name is a wonderful way to honor them as are memorials in honor of someone who loved it or the great outdoors. Also, keep in mind that Beth Billington, Bob Guinn, and Diane Coates and other Coldwell Banker Bain realtors are willing to, in fact have already, donated a percentage of their commission on house sales if you ask them to. Dana Kohut of J.L. Scott has also expressed a willingness to do the same. And there is always the list of companies who have Gift Matching programs like Microsoft which can be found on our web site at http://www.bridletrails.org/matching_funds_list.htm.

We hope to see you in the Park someday soon!

Bridle Trails Park Foundation, Board of Trustees