ArroyoFest Bulletin #2 – March 19, 2002

Festival Seeks Funding - Under the auspices of the Highland Park Community Development Corporation, ArroyoFest submitted a grant proposal to the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department for the planned festival in Sycamore Grove Park. Gabrielle Woods, president of CDC, did a great job pulling all the material together for the grant and getting it in on time. As part of the application process the walk/festival committee has come up with a detailed budget and workplan for the next six months. Next Walk/Festival Meeting is Monday, March 25th from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute, 1882 Campus Road (see below for details).

Traffic Meeting Flows Smoothly - On March 5th, representatives from the Working Committee met with representatives of the transportation departments for Pasadena, South Pasadena and Los Angeles along with Caltrans to discuss traffic issues resulting from the closing of the freeway on October 6th. The meeting went well, with each city sharing its concerns, issues and the timing for issuing a permit for the road closure.

ArroyoFest Getting "Red Carpet" Treatment - ArroyoFest has agreed to retain Traffic Management, Inc. to create a traffic management plan for the ArroyoFest event. TMI is the same firm doing the Academy Awards this year, so we feel we're in good hands. The company president Chris Spano will be overseeing the planning with his top engineer Mike Sprouse. With Chris and Mike's help we hope to have most of the hurdles for securing our permit by early May.

Rose Bowl Reserved - Continuing with the permitting theme, we now have reservations for the start of the bike ride in front of the Rose Bowl and adjacent parking lots. We still have some paperwork to file with Pasadena, but Ariel Penn, Pasadena's filiming and special events coordinator, has walked us through the initial steps in the process. Thanks Ariel!!

ArroyoFest Outreach Summit Next Tuesday - The Community Outreach Committee met last night and came up with an outreach game plan for the ArroyoFest event involving a speaker's bureau, a schools workgroup and a Grand Arroyo Cleanup. The committee decided to hold an Outreach Summit next week to present the plan, receive feedback and divide up tasks for the next several months. Next Outreach Meeting is Tuesday, March 26th from 7 to 9 p.m.at Hathaway Family Resource Center, 840 N. Avenue 66. (see below for details).

Bike Ride Gets a Boost - ArroyoFest received good news last week. We've gotten pledge for funding to help with the bike ride portion of the event. We're still working out the details with our sponsor so we don't have a formal announcement yet but this will get the bike ride off to a great start. Next Bike Committee Meeting is Saturday, March 23rd from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (see below for details).

Sponsorship Packet Almost Ready! - We know that everyone has been waiting with baited breath for our sponsorship packet to hit the streets. The day is drawing near. The Sponsorship Committee made final recommendations on Friday and last minute tweaks and tucks are being made this week. The committee has identified particular agencies and businesses that are prime sponsor candidates and have already made several initial contacts. Next Sponsorship Committee Meeting is Friday, April 5th from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the Center for Food and Justice, 2106 Colorado Blvd. Eagle Rock.