Great.
Good afternoon, everybody.
This is a special meeting, and so normally we do our meetings Wednesday at 2, and today we're going to start at noon.
Council Members Bagshaw and Gonzales will be joining us shortly.
This is a meeting of the Civic Development, Public Assets, and Native Communities Committee.
The date is Wednesday, July 17th, and the time is exactly noon, even though you have 2 o'clock on here.
I'm Council Member Deborah Juarez, chair of this committee, and I will be joined, as I said, later by Council Member Bagshaw and Gonzales.
We will move to approval of the agenda, and I understand there are no objections, so the agenda will be adopted, and I'll go into the Chair's report.
We have four items on our agenda today that we're running on a tight schedule, which includes three pieces of legislation by our Parks Department, followed by a presentation.
Our first item up is the Duwamish Waterway Park acquisition.
which is Council Bill 119582, which requests authorization for the purchase of a parcel of land located within the Duwamish Waterway Park that is currently owned by King County.
This land sits in District 1. I understand the cost is about $1 million.
It's 1.2 acres and the address of this property is 7900 10th Avenue South.
What I understand is that the city staff performed due diligence, which included obtaining soil samples that revealed low-level arsenic in soil below the grass and some discrete hot spots with high concentrations in soil.
Hello, Council Member Baxhaw.
At the north end of the site, the City will promptly perform a remedial action upon acquisition of the parcel to remove the contamination, even though the locations and concentrations currently do not present an immediate public hazard.
King County was notified and they've agreed to reduce the purchase price by $100,000, sufficient funds for the City to perform the remediation.
This is compliant with the requirement to pay fair market value for the property.
While the City remains responsible for any park remediation costs exceeding $100,000, the results of the due diligence investigation indicate that exceeding the cost estimate is very unlikely.
In addition, City staff, with the assistance of the Law Department, negotiated that King County retains all liability associated with the contaminated releases from the property that are being remediated through EPA's Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund Sentiment Cleanup Camp.
I know that was very long-winded.
Thank you, Nagin, for putting all those facts in there.
Our second item is Council Bill 119588. It's called the SUN Park Donation.
SUN stands for Saving Urban Nature.
Welcome, Councilmember Gonzales.
This is an ordinance that authorizes acceptance of a donation of real property and cash to the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department.
This is in the heart of the U District, Northeast 43rd and 9th Avenue.
This donation is from our friends at Fortura Northwest.
and the donation is to be used for open space, park and recreation purposes, and I look forward to hearing more about this opportunity.
The cash donation is allowed under current law and prior legislation relating to the Parkland Acquisition Fund and building for the future.
Our third item is a bill that authorizes the acceptance of another gift from Friends of Christie Park, pieces of artwork to be installed in Christie Park for public use.
Christie Park is located in the University District.
I look forward to hearing more about the background of the art pieces.
Friends of Christie Park are represented by a group of Taiwanese-Americans, and this donation celebrates their culture and friendship between the people of Seattle and Taiwan.
Did I get that right on the first one on the address?
Yeah, I did.
I think I got them.
Yeah, OK.
Sorry about that, because there was two donations that were going on and the ordinance for the property.
And finally, we will receive a brief presentation from Outdoors for All, our friends from Magnuson Park, a local program dedicated to enriching the quality of life for children and adults with disabilities through outdoor recreation.
So with that, that's a brief chair's report.
We'll start with public comment.
And today, public comment is limited to five minutes.
So how many people do we have signed up?
We have two people signed up, so if you could come forward and state your name and speak to an item on the agenda.
You have two minutes, and I want to thank you for being here today.
So come on up, and we'll start the clock when you begin speaking.
First, we have Leslie Wright, and then Janice Camp.
Good afternoon.
I'm pleased to be able to be here today on behalf of the founders of Sun Park, Gene Amick and Dixie Porter, its steering committee, and friends and supporters.
This park is located at the corner of 47th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 47th Street in Seattle.
SUN stands for Saving Urban Nature.
In 2007, SUN was the vision created through the purchase of a small city corner lot from a developer who planned to replace one old original farmhouse and its remaining orchard with three new houses.
Funded in part by a $15,000 neighborhood grant, neighbors and community members participated in a design process, as well as tireless fundraising, from which a unique native plant garden was designed and built.
In need of an official overseer, the property was deeded through an agreement to Cascade Land Conservancy, now Forterra.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Did I get that wrong?
The address, yes.
Yeah, I got the address right.
That's what I thought.
I did catch that.
I'm sorry.
I apologize.
I had them in reverse.
I thought I did.
That's OK.
Thank you for correcting me.
Sure.
Cascade Land Conservancy now for Terra, with the hope that Sun Park would be acquired by Seattle Parks and Recreation at some point in the future.
and that time is now.
In addition, a significant maintenance fund of $100,000 was raised by Sun volunteers over years and is being offered to parks for the purpose of future acquisitions.
Over the 12 past years, the Sun team has envisioned, built, weeded, refined, nurtured, mulched, and weeded some more.
Volunteers have met at least once a month to weed and sweep, and some people have met several times a month to weed and sweep, to keep this green corner well-maintained and visibly cared for in an appreciative neighborhood.
Sun is directly across the street from the Laurelhurst Elementary School, and teachers have used it as an extended classroom, a laboratory of native Pacific Northwest plants.
Small children from the neighborhood's many childcare facilities enjoy wandering around this mini green space on their walks.
Teenagers waiting early in the mornings for their school buses often hang out on the benches there, as do the parents and grandparents waiting to pick up kids from the elementary school.
We are so pleased to be able to make this gift to Seattle Parks and Recreation.
Friends of Sun Park will work closely with parks to ensure its continued care and enjoyment for all.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Yes, Council Member Baxter.
Jean, thank you so much for all your work.
I know a lot of folks in Laurelhurst have done a great deal, not just on that park, but on others, so regards and thank you very much.
My name is Janice Camp, and I'm a member of the Steering Committee for the Sun Park, and I'm speaking with regard to Council Bill 119588, the Sun Park donation.
I just wanted to reiterate what Leslie had to say, that this has been a source of community gathering and community building for 12 years, not just for the people who are on the Steering Committee, but for many other people in our community.
We have a commitment to continue to work with parks maintenance to keep the park looking good over the next foreseeable future because it's so much fun for us to weed and go and meet there.
So we will continue to support the park.
The fundraising efforts over the last 12 years, as Leslie has mentioned, raised over $100,000.
It has helped us maintain the park and we're happy and proud to be able to donate that to the city so they can acquire a park space in other neighborhoods so they too can have a community building location.
So thank you very much and we hope the city enjoys the park.
Thank you.
Okay, so with that, we will go ahead and close public comment.
So we'll have our first folks to come on up here on our items of business.
That is the Duwamish Waterway acquisition.
I know that we were briefed on that.
I know that my colleagues would probably want to hear a little bit more.
I shared a little bit.
So I'm going to let you guys state your name and read into the record.
Nagin, you want to go ahead and read it into the record?
Or do you want me to?
go through your presentation.
Go ahead.
Item 1, Council Bill 119582, an ordinance relating to the Department of Parks and Recreation, authorizing the acquisition of real property commonly known as 7900 10th Avenue South, authorizing acceptance of a recording of the deed for open space, park, and recreation purposes, and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.
All right.
Go ahead.
Tracy Radsliff, Council Central Staff.
Jesus Aguirre, Parks and Recreation.
Lise Hord, Senior Rural Property Agent, Parks and Recreation.
Max Jacobs, Seattle Parks and Recreation.
Great.
I'm actually going to let Lise go through the presentation, but as you said, this is an exciting opportunity for us to acquire this park that we've actually been working in for over 40 years in South Park.
Hi, thank you for your time today.
While it's not adding a new park to the city, this is permanently protecting a park that's been operating in South Park for over 40 years, so we're really excited about that.
There's a pending redevelopment project that kind of drove this process to sort of solidify our ownership.
This park is 1.38 acres in size and as you can see on the picture, a very large portion of it was actually owned.
in fee by King County all of these years that we've been operating a public park there.
So the development project drove this opportunity to negotiate with King County to acquire the property and we're just about there.
Oh, I'm still learning how to use this thing.
So it's a significant acquisition in size, 1.26 acres.
The purchase price is $1 million of Park District funds.
As Councilmember Juarez described earlier, King County reduced the price by $100,000 to cover the cost of a site remediation.
and we'll be able to consolidate our ownership for permitting purposes for the development project and provide a park to the South Park community for years to come.
That's great.
Great.
And there's water access there for kayaks and canoes?
Yes.
The beach is on the bottom part of the slide there at sort of the right of way.
You can see the sandy area there.
This is just kind of a developed schematic showing what the community and Seattle Parks Foundation and park staff have been working on for several years now.
Seattle Parks Foundation has done a fundraising campaign to help raise money for the improvements to this park.
They have all the money for the improvements?
They're virtually there, yes.
Oh, excellent.
Great.
Anything you want to add?
I assume the neighborhood's thrilled.
They're absolutely thrilled and of course they want things to go faster but we're gaining the momentum now and certainly acquiring the property is going to be the big milestone that helps drive things.
Okay.
Is there anything you want to add, Max?
Are we okay?
No, thank you.
That's perfect.
Okay.
So we went through the...
Is anything, any questions?
Okay.
So that's the Duwamish Waterway Park Acquisition.
So we'll move forward on that item right now.
So I move the committee pass Council Bill 119582. Second.
All those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Those opposed, no.
The ayes have it.
And this passes and we'll bring it to full Council Monday.
Thank you so much, Council.
Thank you for all your hard work too.
So we'll move on to item number two.
I'll just read it to the record.
It's Council Bill 119588. And this is the Sun Park donation.
Sun standing for saving urban nature.
I already read, did that, and again, so we're okay.
So we can go ahead and say it again for the record, your name, and then we'll go through your presentation on this matter as well.
Tracy Radcliffe, Council of Central Staff.
Still Tracy.
Still Tracy.
Still Tracy.
Still, it looks like you're correct.
Seattle Parks and Recreation.
Max Jacobs, Seattle Parks and Recreation.
Please forward Seattle Parks and Recreation.
Councilmembers, thanks so much for hearing this item today.
And as the community members introduced the item, we're all thrilled to be here.
This is a great story of community building and developing a space that really has been a community gathering.
And it's just wonderful to now turn it over to the park system, which was always part of the vision.
It's a well-loved community neighborhood park, and as we've talked about, the community did an amazing job of not only gathering the donations and working through a grant to acquire the property in the first place, but also develop it in a really beautiful way.
We've got a picture here of the neighborhood doing a lot of work with it.
Maintaining it over the years and on top of that developing a significant war chest for originally we were talking about future maintenance of the park But we ultimately thought the better use of that money was to put it back into the park district acquisition fund so that we can fuel acquisitions in other neighborhoods So I think that's kind of the essence of this transaction.
The Parks Department is thrilled to be taking this into the system.
It's a wonderful place for the community and for the larger city, and it's a really nice model.
Great.
Do we have any questions from my colleagues?
Again, very thankful to the Laurelhurst neighborhood for doing this.
Absolutely.
Yeah, and I'm sorry I got the address wrong.
I don't know why I got it in my head that this was near the U District one.
This is just down the hill up in Laurelhurst.
So I want to thank the people that came and gave public comment and gave us the information, because I know you guys have been working on this for a while.
OK.
Is there anything else you want to add before we move forward?
All right.
So I move the committee pass Council Bill 119588. All those in favor say aye.
All opposed, no.
Ayes have it and this passes.
So we're just getting all this land and park and money to expand.
Who says you can't grow land in Seattle?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Let's move to item number three.
Okay.
Go ahead, Nagin.
Council Bill 119587, an ordinance relating to Seattle Parks and Recreation authorizing the acceptance of a gift of three art pieces and art titles entitled Explorer Voyage from the Friends of Christie Park to be installed in Christie Park for public use.
Great.
Let's go ahead and do introductions again, always for the record, and then we'll move forward.
Tracy Bradslough.
Susaguira, Parks and Rec.
Katie Bang, Capital Projects Coordinator, Seattle Parks and Recreation.
This was the one that I was looking at.
The other one wasn't exciting, but I was thinking this is right in the heart of the U District.
I know exactly where that's at, so I'm excited to hear your presentation on this.
Okay, thank you very much.
Thanks for taking the time today to hear this piece.
So this is the Christie Park Art Donation.
And this art piece is in a collaboration with the expansion of Christie Park.
Christie Park is currently, it's in the U District, it's on 43rd and 8th Avenue.
It was the old Seattle City Light substation, the Meany substation.
The park development is going to increase the size of the park twofold, so we've attained a parcel to the south.
The artwork is in collaboration with this design, and to let you know, the project went out to bid on Monday, so the capital improvement for the park is currently under bid.
The Explorer Voyage art piece is a celebration of the Taiwanese community.
We have a very active community here and they've been really great working with us through this park development.
Who was James Christie?
I'm sorry, James Christie is the namesake of the park as well and he was an explorer.
So the explorer voyage concept comes from the Taiwanese community and the boats that are associated with Taiwan and the way that they travel and then Exploring as well, Christie Park, or James Christie was an explorer.
And the Explorer Voyage concept comes from the University of Washington and the campus nearby.
The concept came with the community.
The students that are there are kind of in an exploration stage of their life.
So that's kind of the threefold part of the Explorer Voyage theme to the art.
These beautiful canoes.
Are they going to be climbable for kids?
Can they get in and out of them, or are you going to fence them off so it's protected?
Oh, they are not going to be fenced off.
The idea is that they are benches that are collaborative and used as benches for the park.
Paul Sori is the artist, if you guys are familiar.
He did Salmon Waves at Ballard Locks.
He also did Coffee Pot Pergola.
He's done a lot of local art for the city, so his main media is stainless steel, very durable.
So we've been working very closely with our maintenance and our shops as well for this donation.
So the idea of the art, we have these three boats, and then they have, they're kind of crescent-shaped, kind of reminiscent of Ling He Boat, which is from Taiwan.
And then they have this wood slatting on them too, so that they can be sit-able.
And behind it, you can kind of see these walls, cultural representation of Taiwanese culture with some tiling there on the back.
I should say, too, that it's a $50,000 donation.
And Clara Chin, Friends of Christie Park, she was the owner of the lot to the south.
So the reason we're coming to this council today and it's part of this is that in the deed of that property, a donation of some sort was part of that written in the deed to the sale of the park for the south parcel.
Oh, okay.
So we don't always have our donations.
And then we have a maintenance endowment of $6,000 to the Parks Department for maintenance.
This is showing the public outreach process and the collaboration with U District Partnership.
They are the fiscal sponsor for the donation and for the maintenance.
We had three public meetings to go over the park design as well as the art.
And like I said, it was a collaboration with the Friends Up group as well.
Very active, great support.
And that's all I have.
Any questions?
No, I think we're okay.
Unless my colleagues have a question, we can move forward.
Thank you for the PowerPoint and the pictures and the page numbers.
We're very excited for this.
It's an ongoing joke we have here about PowerPoints and page numbers.
I just wanted page numbers.
That's all I was asking.
Not a whole lot.
Okay, so let's move forward on this.
I move the committee pass Council Bill 119587. Second.
All those in favor?
Aye.
Opposed?
The ayes have it and so it passes and we'll bring this to full committee Monday.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Hey, while you're here, while you're here, another thing.
Thank you again for the great work on City Hall Park.
We just walked through it again today.
Excuse me, I'm going to sneeze yet again.
And all of what you promised to do is being done.
I want to say thank you to you, Paula Hoff, who's here, and Christopher, and folks.
And my next ongoing request, of course, is on the Prefontaine Fountain.
One of the things I sent out yesterday was something that's Seattle Center is doing around one of their big fountains.
And the effort they're doing is sending out a survey to everybody in the neighborhood around saying, what do you want to see?
How would you like to see this?
I think that would be a great first step that we could do to start collecting information.
that on top of what we did just last month on the public use survey that SDOT's doing.
What turned up is that from public safety, public health, public good, everything is that if we can move the fountain so that the sight lines are improved, that would be just so important and I'd really like to see us have a plan for that this year.
Great, thank you.
Thanks very much.
So why don't we have our friends introduce themselves and then I'll say a few words and then we'll start the presentation.
I'm Ed Bronsman, Executive Director with the Outdoors for All Foundation.
I'm Alicia McConnell, Program Director at the Outdoors for All Foundation.
Great.
So I should add that these are our friends from Magnuson Park and I've had an opportunity to come out and see the work that you guys have done and actually get on the bikes and do a tour.
So thank you very much and thank you very much for being here.
I wanted you guys to have an opportunity for the community and the public to see what you do.
I know a few other council members have been out there as well.
So we're looking forward to your presentation.
Thank you very much.
Page numbers in the bottom right corner.
Yes, but are they correct?
I hope so.
I also want to importantly make just a note to say thank you to you as council members, because the work that you do is not always easy, and I know there's strife sometimes in our city.
Alicia and I are here to talk about some really good news that's happening, in particular our collaboration with the city, both the Parks and Recreation Department and the Department of Transportation.
But Outdoors for All began 40 years ago here in Seattle.
We're a nonprofit, and our mission is to enrich the quality of life for children and adults with disabilities throughout our recreation.
It's why we exist.
I've got to get my.
We started in 1979. We were teaching skiing to children with disabilities because their friends who did not have disabilities had opportunities to go skiing, and yet the kids with disabilities did not.
So the organization started as the Ski for All Foundation, had 35 children that first year.
We've grown a little bit.
2,924 unique individuals with disability active in our programs this last year.
The activities we include, Alicia will reference a little bit more of, but if you go shopping at REI, those are a lot of the activities that we do.
We particularly appreciate the fact that we're at Magnuson Park, where we offer both experience, expertise, and enthusiasm for the work that we're doing.
Experience in that we've got 40 years of not only helping recovering veterans, people born with disability, people who encounter disability later in life, But that experience goes with an expertise of folks like Alicia, who's a certified therapeutic recreational specialist.
We have multiple CTRSs on our staff.
There are physical therapists, there are occupational therapists, there are also recreation therapists.
And we have an incredible dedicated team of folks who are committed to doing this work.
Importantly, we have the enthusiasm to do this work as well.
Our programs are supported by over 850 volunteers each year.
These are individuals and group members that come from all different corners of the greater Seattle region, greater Puget Sound region, that help to give their time and talent to our participants.
In many cases, we see returning volunteers coming season after season, and we have a handful of volunteers that have been with Outdoors for All or really with Ski for All since our foundation over 40 years.
We support individuals with all types of disabilities, ranging from physical disabilities, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and sensory impairments, and an entire age range as well.
Our youngest participant this year has been three, and our oldest participant so far has been, I believe, over the age of 90 in our cycling program.
I was on one of those bikes, and that's not easy.
You guys will be happy to know.
I actually got on the bike.
It was hard.
I heard.
You heard?
Yeah.
They have a picture of me.
I didn't hear that it wasn't easy.
I heard that you got on the bike and that you enjoyed yourself.
I was very timid.
But I heard you enjoyed yourself.
You said, Ed, I am not getting on one of these bikes, OK?
And then 20 minutes later, you decided to try it out.
I said no, but then Ed convinced me that people don't know what- You let the bike sit there.
Yes.
You didn't want to leave it alone.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
It's a good strategy.
Thank you.
It was actually pretty fun.
I should just in full, because people know this is nothing I've not shared.
I struggle with MS. So I was a little, my balance is really bad.
And it was really good me getting on the bike that day.
Plus, you had some other people there that are struggling with much more disabilities than myself.
And they were whizzing by me.
So I quit being a big, fat baby.
So you shamed me into it pretty much.
In a good way.
In a good way, yes.
So while our programs are mostly supported by volunteers, we do have a full-time staff of 22 individuals that support the planning process.
And that's during year-round time, or during year-round, we have 22 staff members.
Throughout the summer, though, we also employ an additional 28 individuals to help support our summer season.
And if you take a look at the photo on the screen, what you may see is just a gal out enjoying kayaking.
What you don't see is her diagnosis.
This is an individual with visual impairment, and she's also an older adult.
But in our programs, that's not what we focus on.
We focus on folks' abilities and what they can do in getting out on the water.
or getting out in really any of the programs that we offer.
And in this case, she's out kayaking.
And it highlights the diversity of where our programs are also run.
This photo is taken out on Puget Sound.
So we're not just in Magnuson Park.
We are delivering programs really truly throughout the greater Seattle region and hopefully more places throughout Western Washington in years to come.
As you can see in our 40-year history, we have grown exponentially in the last few years by the graph on the screen.
And through a new capital campaign, our aim is to continue to double these experiences and programs provided to people with disabilities through activities and sports like downhill skiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, cycling, hiking, kayaking, rock climbing, and really anything in between.
I'm really impressed with all your partners, too.
That's amazing.
I know you shared this, but it's nice to see it in a slide with everybody's logo, because I remember you telling me about a lot of this.
having Seattle Children's there and some of those other folks.
Cascade Bike, of course.
So that's great.
Seattle Public Schools.
It's a nice, thank you.
It's a nice mix of both for-profit, not-for-profit, and municipal partners.
Our, I think, not-for-profits focus on partnerships as a buzzword, maybe in some ways.
We don't exist as an organization without a partnership with a ski resort that started 40 years ago and continues today.
40 years consecutively to sustain that partnership I've heard management at the Seminoles don't call me say that we are in their DNA and our collaboration with Seattle Parks goes back more than 30 years in programming as a tenant goes back to the early 2000s.
But while we're based in Northeast Seattle only about 10 percent of our service delivery happens there.
The majority of it happens throughout the region and it's because of these partners.
While we were waiting in the audience for our agenda item to come up, I might add we had a pretty cool thing happen, and it's with respect to a partnership we have not just with Seattle Parks because we're basing our cycling programs in this one hub location, but also because of a collaboration we have with the Seattle Department of Transportation, which I'll let Alicia comment on.
This summer, through a partnership with the Seattle Department of Transportation, we are representing Seattle's adaptive bike share program.
We have over 240 different types of adaptive bikes in our fleet that allow us to get just about anyone with an adaptive bike need out pedaling and on the roadway.
So as a partner with SDOT, we were aiming to support 100 unique individuals and over 400 cycling experiences between the beginning of May and the end of September.
And we are happy to report that as of today, we hit that 400 experience mark about 10 minutes ago.
Our staff just sent us a photo text.
So still two months left in our grant period and throughout the remainder of the summer.
And we have blown this goal out of the water because there is a need for adaptive biking and a need to get people with disabilities access to adaptive sport equipment.
And what's the cost for that, Alicia?
The program or the bike?
No, to do a bike day rental.
Oh, it's completely free, thanks to SDOT.
The cost of the bike is a little different.
Getting really good at this, Ed.
I'd like to acknowledge your partnership with SDOT and remind SDOT how important it is that we have these connected bicycle networks.
It's great that people can get on the Bird Kiln Trail, but they can't get off.
with the adaptive cycling unless we've got a safe, separated space for people to ride.
Yeah.
Another point of our programming is that, yes, it does take place at Magnuson Park, but we deliver it all throughout the region.
Another free demonstration day, it'll be with a small sampling of our cycles, maybe half a dozen, but hand cycles, side-by-side tandem bikes, will be Saturday, August 10th at a community event in North Seattle at the Live in D5 event.
citizen and resident of D5, so I'm glad to be representing both where I live and also my organization at that event.
So free bike rides, come out and play.
You had a booth last year.
You didn't.
And I would not get on the bike then.
But I'll do it again this year.
We'll keep you busy that day.
Ed would leave me alone.
He's like, just come over here one time.
I said, OK, I'll come over there.
Can I just add one other thing, just quickly, I don't know if you said this.
I really liked and learned a lot about the skiing program you have, too, and the pictures that you had showed me that young folks and people that you bring up with disabilities and blind people to go skiing, which is amazing.
It's an extraordinary experience for any one of us to conquer a mountain or go out on a bike path and just be able to do things.
And for too many people with disabilities, the idea is just out of range.
And yet, if there's an organization that has expertise, if there's an organization that has experience, if there's an organization that has equipment, and if there's an organization that is committed to partnerships to make this kind of thing happen, wouldn't it be pretty magical if that could happen even more?
There is one.
Yeah.
Anyway.
And thank you for the plug of Live at D5 on Saturday, August 10th, that you will be there again with your booth.
Looking forward to it.
It's free.
Let's get some more writers that day.
Currently, our operational budget is $2.5 million.
And this allows us to, again, be incredibly active in the greater Puget Sound region.
But as we grow, we are aiming to increase the budget and deliver more programs throughout Seattle and more programs throughout the rest of Washington.
Less than 10% of our budget comes from governmental sources.
Less than 10.
Less than 10. Okay.
We have a grant with the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs, helping recovering veterans.
We have a grant with King County Metro for accessible minibuses and vans to help us get folks around.
And then we have support from the Seattle Department of Transportation, which is new this year.
We welcome government funding.
We don't expect it.
We recognize what we need to do is help people with disabilities get out and recreate, and that's what we're called to do.
This is one graphic example.
This is just some of the communities that we're delivering our programs in.
Yes, we're based in North Seattle, but because we have these system of trailers, we can pack full our gear, either our kayaks, our bikes, snowshoes, skis, whatever.
We can take it all over the region and deliver programs not only throughout the city, not only throughout King County, but throughout the state.
What we've come to as an inflection point, though, as an organization, We know that the community is growing, and we know we've got to get more people out and active.
We know we've got the right equipment.
As far as we know, we have one of the world's largest fleets of adaptive cycles anywhere, over 240 cycles in our fleet.
We don't want them in our warehouse.
We want people out riding them.
We want people out rock climbing with us.
And if your paradigm view is I need a two-wheel bike to go ride a bike, no, there's so many more options.
And we've begun this campaign all about people, programs, partnerships, and places.
It's about people with disabilities first and foremost.
We want to give them more opportunity.
We want to give them and their families an opportunity to get out and be active.
We want to use our programs that are already highly effective.
We want to make sure that the partnerships we've been using for 40 years are a key strategy to make that happen and ultimately that we'll have a place that is worthy of these individuals as a gathering center to have that take place.
As Alicia noted, our goal is to double our experiences by 2023. Our goal by 2017 was to get to 8,500.
The campaign began early in that point.
We actually reached 10,900.
end of 2018. So we're on track to get there but we have a key factor that's going to get us there and hopefully I can get this video to play.
Outdoors for all enriches the lives of thousands of people with disabilities and their families.
My older son was diagnosed on the autism spectrum and started as a participant.
But then over time, he and his younger brother became volunteers.
We love Outdoors for All.
It gives kids like Ramon the opportunity to actively participate in fun outdoor activities.
They get to show what they can do and they sure can do a lot.
All along the way, the Outdoors for All staff and volunteers are there to provide support and expertise for our participants and family members.
I started out thinking I'd be helping others, but I think I stayed as a volunteer for so many years because of the difference Outdoors For All has made in my own life.
We all kind of get to know all the students in there, and their success is really our success.
Doesn't everyone deserve to experience the power of the great outdoors?
Hi, I'm Ed Braunston, Executive Director with the Outdoors for All Foundation.
Since 1979, Outdoors for All has been enriching the lives of children and adults with disabilities through outdoor recreation.
Outdoors for All has helped people with disabilities enjoy the mental and physical benefits of an active lifestyle.
The expertise of our staff and dedication of our volunteers has allowed us to keep pace and grow with the ever-increasing need for our impactful programs.
From our start as a small adaptive program called Ski For All, reaching 15 kids with disabilities, to the thousands of lives we enrich today, Outdoors For All has become a robust organization poised to do more, much more.
The diversity of disabilities we support, matched with the vast choices of outdoor activities we offer, has made us a national leader in adaptive and therapeutic recreation for children and adults with disabilities.
We are proud and humbled by the impact of our work.
We are now at a critical point of capacity.
To meet the growing needs of our community, we're embarking on the Launching Possibilities campaign with a goal to enrich the lives of thousands more children and adults living with a disability.
Our organization is unable to reach thousands more individuals who deserve to experience the joy of outdoor recreation.
We've expanded and stretched to meet the needs of our community.
Our current physical infrastructure is no longer adequate.
Our central office is in a terrific location in Seattle's Madison Park, but we're crammed into a former military prison building.
We do not have enough space to efficiently grow our team, programs, or partnerships.
Our current space does not offer the welcoming place our community deserves, one that is fully accessible to people with and without disabilities.
We deliver programs throughout the region, but without more support, we cannot deliver on the requests from other organizations to add Outdoors for All to their programs.
We do not have sufficient space to train our essential volunteers, which limits the number of people who make our life-enriching work possible.
We have one of the largest fleets of adaptive cycles anywhere in the world.
But we can't fit all of the equipment in our facilities, which causes inefficiencies with maintenance and access.
With your support, Outdoors for All will reach thousands more children and adults living with disabilities each year.
We'll do so by creating a destination worthy of our participants.
Working together, we can shape a center around the specific and diverse needs of our community.
A space that reflects our values, improves our ability to deliver programs on and off site.
A place with curated amenities and details.
Our new base camp will include multiple use recreation and education rooms, It will include a state-of-the-art first-rate adaptive cycling center.
We'll incorporate sensory-friendly technologies, such as Microsoft Soundscape, where individuals who are blind or visually impaired, through sound, can receive directional information via their cell phones on how to negotiate a public space.
We've been competitively selected by the City of Seattle to renovate an old U.S.
Navy firehouse at Magnuson Park.
Your support will help us turn this building into a launching pad to take our recreation programs to scale and enrich the lives of thousands more people with disabilities across the region.
But we need your help.
Our goal is to raise $10 million.
We'll expand our many adaptive recreation programs and leverage our highly effective partnerships to do so.
Plus, we'll invest in a first-rate community recreation center for people with and without disabilities.
We have the opportunity to double our impact.
Within the first three years of opening our doors, we will increase the number of life-enriching experiences we provide annually to over 17,000.
With your support, a child with Down syndrome will learn to ride a bike.
A person living with paralysis will ski again.
A veteran with post-traumatic stress will connect with others, enrich their fitness, and gain rehabilitation through outdoor recreation.
A family will have access to extraordinary programming and won't have financial barriers preventing them from participating.
A volunteer will match their lifelong passion with helping others.
An expanded partnership with the hospital will help reach a high-need demographic of kids with disabilities living with limb difference.
Your investment will propel Outdoors for All's ability to reach thousands more people of all ages.
You can create thousands more life-transforming experiences through the power of outdoor recreation.
I fully endorse the Launching Possibilities campaign.
Now is the time.
Now is the time.
Let's do this.
Together.
We have seen the transformative power of our mission.
Now you can impact even more lives through our community.
Let's do this together!
All right, well done, Ed.
Thank you.
Is this on the website?
No, it will be soon.
There's a couple little tweaks we're still making to the video, but sorry, trying to get forward.
We're not trying to hide it.
We're just making some final adjustments.
You folks are the first to see the video publicly.
Great.
We want to close with our remarks here in just the next 90 seconds, but it's critical for us to have a better base camp.
If you're going to climb Mount Everest, you need a good base camp.
We have a tremendous track record with the city and with the community for the private fundraising we're working on.
We are looking to lobby the mayor's office for support for what we're doing here as well.
This building, the firehouse, we are in lease negotiations with the Parks Department.
They've been very supportive of what we're trying to achieve.
It is a public asset that for 25 years has been left to almost fall down.
And the city was able to save it a few years back.
It is a historic building.
It's incredibly expensive to fix because of asbestos and lead and earthquake issues, but it's an incredible location.
And we hope to do much to what the Mountaineers do, which is renovate a building that was used by the Navy, and in this case, turn it into a rehabilitation community center for people with and without disabilities.
We've raised, to date, specifically to the renovations of the building, $4.5 million.
$1 million from the state of Washington, $1 million from King County.
We're hoping to be able to get the city to step up and match those dollars, and then we'll complete the rest of it through private dollars.
As many know, the history of this park is important.
It is an incredible collaboration center, but our goal is to turn not only this space for children with disabilities, but as a former military base to turn it into a base of rehabilitation for our nation's wounded warriors.
As an Army brat, I can speak to the high need of helping to support this generation of veterans and veterans to come.
So rehabilitating this building to support veterans is a continuing part of our mission and an aim that we have just to continue to add stability and transition to veterans entering the civilian world.
There are two other things we'll close with.
One is that not all disabilities are visible.
And number two is disability does not mean inability.
Case in point, which of these two women is blind?
You don't see disability first when you see Hannah and her mom, Allie.
You see two women who are going to be out and active.
This is a photo I took in January.
They were out cycling in that bike that we got Council Member Juarez to sit on and then eventually pedal.
And then she's like, I kind of want to ride this bike.
It's overcoming those barriers, overcoming those psychological barriers, and utilizing resources that are in play now and bringing them further to bear.
So thank you very much.
We're here to answer any questions you may have.
We want to be respectful of everyone's time.
All right.
Is there anything from my colleagues?
Ed, you and I met about 10 years ago.
And I was amazed with your program then.
And it's wonderful to see how far you've come.
And the idea of getting that fire station renovated and having you in it is very inspiring.
And I hope we can participate.
Thank you.
We know a lot of folks want that.
Thank you.
So Ed and Alicia, thank you very much.
Like I said, I've been out there a couple times.
And I wanted you to have the opportunity to be a committee to talk about what you're doing and the efforts that you've made, the success that you've made, the money that you've raised.
Because people don't know how much you've connected with the private sector in raising money.
And you have a phenomenal board.
And so I want to thank you for that and what you bring not only, obviously, to the city of Seattle, but what you do statewide.
Thank you.
The collaboration, I can't emphasize enough what we have with the Parks Department, is significant.
Both Jesus from Brian Judd, who's the park manager, to just the community, folks want us to be successful.
So this is one of those universal goods, kinds of connections, and we sure are driven to draw this forward.
So thank you very much.
Okay, is there anything from my colleagues?
Okay, so with that, thank you very much.
Thank you, Aziz.
Thank you, and I'll see you, Alicia.
All right, so with that, I think we've covered all four matters, and before we adjourn, let me share that the next meeting of the Civic Development, Public Assets, and Native Communities Committee will be Wednesday, September 4th, and with that, we stand adjourned.
Thank you.
Thank you, guys.