Dear friend of Fort Natomas
Seventeen years ago the South Natomas community joined together to build a Leathers and Associates playground at Jefferson Park next to Jefferson Elementary School. Our community raised $110,000 in order to fund this dream. During November 6 – 10, 1991, over 2,000 volunteers worked side by side to transform a 12,000 square foot patch of dirt into a children’s dream playground filled with mazes, slides, and magical telephones. Tragically during the early evening on Monday, June 26, 2006 arsonists set a devastating fire which destroyed our beloved Fort Natomas playground. Our community rallied again to rebuild an even better and more beautiful Fort Natomas five months later, November 7 – 12, 2006. Our neighbors, 2,500 of them, united again to recreate our children’s dream playground in just six short days.
Unbelievably, on May 26, 2008, heartbreak struck our community again. In the middle of the night, our beloved playground was engulfed in a ball of flames. In a short 15 minutes, our playground, a landmark for our community, was gone. In the midst of our shock and mourning of such a devastating loss, not once but twice in less than two years, our community has again come together to Rebuild Fort Natomas.
On November 4 – 9, 2008 a mere 2 years after rebuilding the second time, the Natomas community will again join together to Rebuild Fort Natomas. In five months, Natomas will complete what originally took one and one-half years to organize. There is much to be done and much help is needed. Foremost we need volunteers to provide the following: skilled and unskilled labor for the build and child care during the build; food to feed our hungry volunteers; and tools to be loaned for the build. Material donations or cash donations to obtain items such as hardware, lumber, food and children’s supplies to be used in child care during the build are also desperately needed.
We want to invite you to join with us in supporting Rebuild Fort Natomas by donating materials, services and/or cash. The overall cost for the playground is $400,000. The generosity of businesses such as yours will enable us to recapture the spirit of community dreams and volunteerism and rebuild once again a new and unique playground out of the ashes. We look forward to you joining our community effort in Rebuilding Fort Natomas.
Sincerely yours,
Rebuild Fort Natomas Core Committee