The Orinda Community Foundation played a big role in transforming the old Orinda schoolhouse (shown as it was in 1939) into the Orinda Community Center, and now, after absorbing the Orinda Park and Recreation Foundation, it will play an even bigger role moving forward.
While Orinda itself just hit 40 years since its incorporation, the Orinda Park and Recreation Foundation (OPRF) will mark its 15th anniversary this year – although in a different form.
OPRF has officially merged with the Orinda Community Foundation (OCF), a move that former OPRF president Carolyn Mills says can be chalked up to, among other reasons, a lack of volunteers.
OPRF was founded as the Orinda Foundation in 1975, back when Orinda was still unincorporated and subject to Contra Costa County’s decision-making process. The foundation was formed to raise and receive funding for public recreational facilities in the area.
The previous year, negotiations between the Orinda Union School District and Costa Contra County, facilitated through a previously established recreation district, culminated in an agreement to purchase the Orinda Union School, its exterior buildings and seven acres of adjoining land.
OPRF and other community organizations then pulled together volunteer efforts to establish programming at the community center, as well as park infrastructure, such as picnic tables and a tot lot.
“This was an organization that came together as Orinda residents decided to raise money to help refurbish the community center and create the Community Center Park through the years,” said Mills. “And then it went on to raise money and purchase the 111 acres of open space, as well as set up the little Orinda Oaks Park in South Orinda.”
Since 2002, OPRF has helped to fund local assets, such as Art in Public Places, Concerts and Movies in the Park and the San Pablo Creek Restoration Plan.
It has also helped to establish a local skateboard park fund and contributed towards the purchase of the Carr Ranch by the John Muir Land Trust.
The Orinda Community Foundation, meanwhile, lists the Orinda Association, the Orinda Garden Club, Concerts and Movies in the Park, Seniors Around Town, Lamorinda Idol for Youth and more, as its beneficiaries for last year.
Since 2010, the organization has donated over $550,000 to support the community.
Organizations interested in a grant from OCF can find an application on their website (orindafoundation.org/get-involved). The application period is open from Sept. 1 to Oct. 15.
In terms of the merger between the two organizations, Mills noted a cross-over between OPRF’s goals and OCF’s focus on bolstering various community-enriching activities, beautification work and the arts.
“They had a wider network, they had a larger board and they were doing a lot more to be visible to the public,” she said of OCF. “With our board down to six people, [OPRF] just did not have enough folks to really take on projects.”
Bill Wadsworth, former ORPF treasurer and president, recalled the organization’s role in raising money to pay the city back for those 111 acres next to Orinda Oaks Park, dedicated in 2002 as Orinda Oaks Open Space Preserve.
That open space had been in the hands of the Resolution Trust Corporation, a temporary federal agency formed to deal with the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, until a group of Orinda citizens pushed for the land to be dedicated for public use in 1992. That led to the city working out a $600,000 deal with the corporation, and OPRF commenced fundraising two years later.
Wadsworth acknowledged that those years spent raising that money were difficult, with not much help from outside grants.
“So it was almost all raised, if not 100%, 95% on individual donations,” he said.
Wadsworth also touched on the issue of securing volunteers for the organization’s board, saying that he had spent some time advocating for a merger with OCF, among other possible solutions.
“It got increasingly frustrating, because it was hard to raise money and hard to get people that were workers on the board,” Wadsworth said, acknowledging that younger working adults simply didn’t have the time to contribute.
The two Orinda-focused organizations joining forces was “the logical outcome,” he said.
Mills said that legal notices for the merger were approved by state government, and final taxes will be filed soon. OPRF’s money has been transferred to OCF, with two OPRF board members – Mills and Tom Lavin – ensuring that money from the separate fund is funneled into park and recreational opportunities.
That fund also supports art in public places, said Mills, emphasizing that anyone who wishes to contribute to park and recreational activities or facilities can do so through OCF, and earmark their donation as such.
Mills also said that at the end of last year, since their state approvals were still pending, OPRF gave out money to the city for different sports and recreation programs.
Funding also went to the beautification initiative Light Up Orinda and the city’s renowned 4th of July parade.
As OPRF winds down, the board has officially been disbanded and meetings have ceased. Mills reflected on the organization’s half-century in operation, calling the folding a bit sad.
“It’s also a sign of things in Orinda, that there’s just not that many volunteers anymore,” he said.
