Healdsburg Parks Foundation launches first legacy bench project

There’s a new nonprofit in town, the Healdsburg Parks Foundation, which aims to provide an outlet for residents to donate to the community’s public parks and raise funds for the maintenance of parks by offering park bench legacy projects.
Healdsburg resident Matt Villano is working on the foundation’s first bench project, which will be installed in honor of LaMarion Spence, a beloved Healdsburg resident who died in 2018 after a multi-year battle with lung cancer.
“The foundation was formed to provide support and maintain public parks in Healdsburg and the idea is that the charitable funds that we raise are able to further create equitable access (to parks) and investment in public spaces and public infrastructure in the community,” said Ariel Kelley, who helped get the nonprofit off the ground in July. “Initially we are going to be doing some legacy projects. There have been a couple of really incredible community members who have passed away, and their families and friends have wanted to make donations to memorialize them with a bench or another type of infrastructure.”
Villano hopes to raise enough funds to either install a bench or a series of benches near the Plaza or along the Foss Creek Trail.
“LaMarion Spence was a longtime member of the community and he was a great friend of mine. He was just beloved. He had a juice company so he was selling stuff at the farmers market. He was just an incredibly genuine person who sought deep connections with a variety of people in the community — white, brown, man, woman — just an all around affable human,” Villano said. 
Villano opined that if Spence had run for mayor he could’ve won by a landslide, that’s how much he was loved and admired by the community.
Spence died on Dec. 13, 2018 at the age of 56. He was born in Connecticut where he lived for many years until he moved to Healdsburg in 1999. In his youth, he was active in his community and was a member of the Boy Scouts and of the First and Summerfield UMC church.
In an obituary written by Rollie Atkinson in 2018, Spence’s mother Eva recalled how her son loved being with children and sharing experiences and lessons with them through song, play and poetry.
According to the obituary, “His family also remembered him and school mates for his selection of clothing, vehicles, inspiring songs and devoted friendships.”
Spence was also known in the Healdsburg community for his cold-pressed juice company, Seeded Juice Company. He also brought the concept of stone soup meals to Healdsburg.
“He made a point of making sure that people at the dinners were people who wouldn’t normally come together, so it wasn’t just upper middle-class white people, it was people from every walk of life. The whole idea was to share food and share experiences and as a result, grow the community,” Villano said.
He said he’d love to see the stone soup tradition continue either through this effort or in addition to it, suggesting an annual farmers market stone soup get-together or through some other avenue.
When Spence died, an impromptu candlelight vigil was held in the gazebo at Plaza Park and around 200 people attended.
“I started thinking, ‘At some point down the road, we need to do something in the community to celebrate his memory, because he was such a big part of the community,’” Villano said. “In the weeks that followed his death it became clear that the best way to celebrate his memory was to create something that would give the people of Healdsburg the opportunity to come together, because that was sort of what Spence enabled.”
Ultimately he decided either a bench or a conversation pit with tables and seating and a plaque, if the budget allows, would be the best way to honor Spence. He said he wants the space to bring people together since that’s what Spence was all about.
Currently there isn’t a specific dollar amount goal for the fundraising effort, rather Villano is going to see how much they can raise and go from there. 
“At this point we just want to raise as much money as we can and once we see how much is there, determine the breadth and scope of what we can do,” he said.
At the very least, Villano would like to see a dedicated bench, which comes in at around $2,000.
“In my heart of hearts I would love to see an outdoor living space complete with a sculpture that we can sort of pop into the area. I think that would be really great. Anything that brings people together is going to achieve the objective because knowing that people are able to come together and connect in Spence’s name I think will ensure that his legacy lives on in the community,” he said.
Villano said since Spence’s birthday was Jan. 12, that seems like a good time to wind up accepting donations.
“The great thing about the Healdsburg Parks Foundation as it exists as a 501(c)(3), is that if people want to make a donation in Spence’s memory after the window is closed they can and they’ll still get the tax write-off and we’ll be able to use the money,” Villano said.
Folks can make donations by visiting healdsburgparks.com.

About the Healdsburg Parks Foundation

The city’s parks and community services are currently solely funded by the city’s transit occupancy tax. Residents’ property taxes do not go to the parks, rather visitors who lodge in Healdsburg are the ones bringing in parks revenue and so up until recently, there wasn’t a way for residents to directly support their parks.
Now, with the foundation, residents can support local parks directly.
“We have two big park projects that the city is taking on: the Montage/Saggio Hills Park and the Badger Park redesign. Those two projects are going to really transform and kind of ‘next level’ some of our city’s parks and they are going to be expensive. Our hope is that through a variety of sources of funds, we are able to bring those parks to fruition,” Kelley said.“In order to do that, we wanted to create a philanthropic avenue where charitable dollars could be donated to the creation of those parks.”
Kelley is the chair of the board. Board members include board secretary Samantha Marquis, board treasurer Carrie Hunt and director Lacey Scott.
In terms of fundraising efforts, Kelley said, “We will be doing some individual giving campaigns where folks can make a donation in honor of someone and then we will also at a later date be launching a membership program where anyone can become a member of the Healdsburg Parks Foundation and part of those funds would go to support the mission.”
She said as the city gets closer to bringing the Healdsburg Park Master Plan to life, which calls for park design elements such as a dog park or a bike pump track at Montage Park, some folks may want their fundraising efforts to go to specific purposes like helping to fund the pump track.
The foundation will also have the ability to write grants and at some point the foundation will be looking at opportunities to apply for grants from a variety of sources across the state and the country.
The organization will also be working closely with the Healdsburg Community Services Department since the intent is that all of the funds that are raised through the foundation will go straight to the city to pay for city infrastructure and park work.