Dear C100 Members and Friends:
The Committee of One Hundred has a new, updated name -- "Balboa Park Committee of 100" -- and an ambitious agenda for 2021.
Our annual end-of-the-year appeal was shifted to Valentine's Day, when we send our love to the city's "crown jewel," and celebrate the start of our San Diego Automotive Museum restoration project.
Four colorful ceramic tile murals, based on the original painted artwork and underwritten by your generous contributions, will be going up this month. In March look for the installation of ornamentation panels in a Mayan motif. By spring we'll add suitable lighting and two California grizzly bear statues and two flagpoles on the roof. These features will return much of the original artistic look of what was the California State Building at the 1935-36 California Pacific International Exposition.
C100's Board of Directors voted to make our next priority the restoration of the nearby Municipal Gymnasium. With your support, we will reproduce the 1935 building's original bronze-like panel that hung over the entrance. It depicted themes of exhibits inside the Palace of Electricity and Varied Industries.
The city has already converted the south half of the parking lot back to a pedestrian-only space, Palisades Plaza, not seen in more than eight decades. You can sit at umbrella tables or picnic on the grass while watching inline skaters and tykes on trikes. This is where we hope one day to bring back the Firestone Singing Fountain with spectacular sound and light shows, a popular attraction at the 1935-36 fair. Finally, we are championing the activation of the new park space with refreshments and entertainment.
Please join us to make the new park space fun again by sending a 2021 donation by check in the enclosed membership envelopes. For online gifts via PayPal, visit the donor page. If you've made a recent contribution, we thank you for your continued support! If you'd like to reactivate your membership or join for the first time, welcome!
As you send a little love to the park this Valentine's Day, enjoy Save Starlight's YouTube music video -- "Put a Little Heart in the Park"
And feel free to contact me anytime at rogershowley@c100.org
Sincerely, Roger Showley