Menlo Park: 'Personalized' walkway in Burgess Park raises funds for kids Menlo Park: 'Personalized' walkway in Burgess Park raises funds for kids (September 14, 2005)

** Residents can buy and inscribe a brick for path leading to new pools at Burgess Park.

By Renee Batti

Almanac News Editor

It's where many kicked their first soccer ball or caught their first fly ball. Where countless nervous kids learned to float in shallow water, and gradually gained the confidence to plunge into the depths like playful mermaids and mermen.

And when Burgess Park is completely renovated, it inevitably will be visited, used and enjoyed by some of those same first-time kickers, swimmers and catchers of years ago -- now delivering their own children to the pools and playing fields of Menlo Park's hub of recreation.

Members of the city's Parks and Recreation Commission are counting on those residents, and all other members of the community who use or have used Burgess Park facilities, to join in a fundraising effort with two goals: to build a fund that will allow disadvantaged children to participate in Burgess programs, and simultaneously, build a walkway in the park that will reflect the heart of the community.

By contributing between $150 and $250, participants in the "Leave Your Mark at Burgess Park" campaign can have a brick inscribed with a personal message. And they will be giving kids who might otherwise not be able to pay city fees a chance to kick their first soccer ball or learn to swim at Burgess.

Parks and Recreation Commissioner Rory Whittaker said the volunteer commission hopes to raise $80,000 to $90,000 through the campaign, and those funds will launch a foundation for Menlo Park children from low-income families so that "they will have the same rights and privileges as we had at the park."

Mr. Whittaker's own enjoyment of the park through the years gives him an extra dose of motivation as he helps with the campaign: He coached Little League, basketball and soccer at Burgess for 20 years for all three of his kids, he said.

The walkway will lead to the entrance of the new pool complex. Participants can buy a 4-by-8-inch brick for $150, or an 8-by-8-inch brick for $250. The contribution is tax-deductible.

Bricks can be inscribed simply with a buyer's name, or with messages of appreciation of a person or celebration of an event, Mr. Whittaker noted. Memorial inscriptions are also popular, and have been ordered for a number of the 100-plus bricks already sold.

The volunteer brick-sellers also hope that local businesses will join the effort.

The walkway project "gives us a chance to give back to the community as well as leave our mark -- to say, 'We've been here,'" Mr. Whittaker said.

For more information, call Mr. Whittaker at 799-4279 or Richard Cline at 207-1677.

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