By Delle Willett

Balboa Park has blessed San Diego since the late 19th century. How can we be sure it will survive and thrive into the next century?

That’s the question Friends of Balboa Park — a group dedicated to Balboa Park as a whole, initiating park-wide projects with the vision of keeping the park alive and well into the next century — recently asked its members.

In its 16th year of operation, Friends is responsible for the successful completion of nearly 250 projects and activities for the benefit of the park. Friends are investing their $5 million of private contributions for the purpose of funding an extensive list of improvements, which include park beautification, information systems, water conservation, restoration/enhancement projects, and community events.

From a core group of six, the circle of Friends has grown to over 4,000 supporters, and their accomplishments number in the hundreds, some being a one-time effort, others ongoing year after year.

Currently there are 20 members on the Friends’ board and 28 on the advisory council.

“Our greatest successes are not always the most conspicuous,” said Betty Peabody, a founder of Friends. “[Things such as] quietly identifying and meeting a need; seamlessly integrating a new feature into an historic setting; partnering with other organizations and public agencies to raise the park’s profile; and give its interests a voice in city government.”

The Friends’ core programs include the enhancement and preservation of parkland, structure and infrastructure, visitor safety and security, park access and understanding, and preservation of the park’s legacy.

• A true labor of love and an example of the private and public partnership that Friends has with the city of San Diego are the five information kiosks conveniently placed around the park. The kiosks provide visitors with maps and information about the park’s many attractions and institutions and their offerings. They also have ATM machines.

This project was seven years in the making at a cost of $500,000.

• During the centennial year, the Adopt-a-Plot program invites individuals, families, organizations and businesses to adopt a garden or landscape area within Balboa Park. This program has been so successful they are hoping to continue it beyond the centennial year.
• San Diego’s first Arbor Day celebration was March 17, 1904. Kate Sessions helped to organize that first planting, a community event attended by 350 school children who came to what was then called “City Park” to plant 60 pine and cypress trees.

Friends brought back the tradition, and recently celebrated its eighth Arbor Day at the War Memorial Building when 11 American Tulip trees were planted with volunteer help from local area students.

• The Friends’ Water-Wise program was designed to optimize water use in the parkland by 2020, to make the park more environmentally sustainable while keeping it healthy and fit for appropriate human enjoyment.

“Going into the centennial we asked ourselves, ‘How can we be sure the park is going to be here 100 years from now and into the next centennial?’ and the answer is water,” Peabody said. “And that’s why we chose water as our 2015 project.”

An example is the Zoro Garden Water Reclamation project currently under construction, where water from the roof of the Casa de Balboa (rain, dew and HVAC condensation) will be captured, stored and used to irrigate the adjacent Zoro Garden and canyon [See “Art on the Land: Friends of the Earth,” San Diego Downtown News, June 5, Vol. 16, Issue 6].

• Friends is also tackling the park’s water infrastructure, financing a documentation of the park’s underground water pipes, which were laid in the early 1900s with little or obsolete documentation.

Over the last two and a half years, Dr. Matt Rahn — an environmental scientist and professor at San Diego State University — and his students have been mapping the water pipes and valves that deliver water into the park.

GPS is allowing Rahn and his students to develop an app that will help city workers locate weak points in the park’s water pipes and enable them to stand anywhere in the park at a broken water main, look at a map of Google Earth in real time and locate the three closest valves required to isolate that pipe.

Once a break is isolated, the city won’t have to turn off water to the entire park, essentially shutting the park down. Using this technique, there’s a 90 percent laborsaving in those areas, as well as reduction of cost and inconvenience.

To date, 11 water sources (all drinkable) have been identified, supplying water to buildings, gardens, landscapes and fountains. Students are locating the pipes and trying to determine the size, the age, the manufacturer, and the materials the pipes are made of. The survey will take another one to two years to complete; it is critical for troubleshooting leaks and digging for any reason.

• Every year since 2000, the apolitical Friends of Balboa Park holds a luncheon in October to honor long-time park volunteers, many who have worked quietly behind the scenes for years. All of the park’s organizations support and value this event, which typically draws over 300 participants to witness the event, which includes five “inspiration” awards and one “millennium” award.
• Through the Tom Goad Scholarship fund, Friends has sponsored several thousand San Diego fifth grade students to come to the park. Beneficiaries are countywide and primarily from Title 1 schools and expenses covered include buses to transport the students, as well as teachers and chaperones to and from the park.
• Balboa Park’s unique history is derived not only from its service to its community and country through two world wars and two expositions, as well as varied park uses in between and after each of these events. Hence, almost every building or site within the park has had multiple uses.
• The group recently researched and installed signs at the Lily Pond and the Botanical Building describing all of their fascinating, multifaceted uses since being constructed for the 1915 Exposition. So great has been the interest and response to the signs that Friends has been inspired to create similar signs for each historic building and site constructed.

“A very generous benefactor has given $1 million to Friends of Balboa Park as a lead gift for an endowment fund,” said Peabody, who has worked for the park seven days a week for more than 45 years. “In addition, in this centennial year we’ve been challenged to raise $500,000 more, which will be matched dollar-for-dollar by year’s end. Thus our endowment will be doubled. This will allow us to give more support to the ever-challenging needs of Balboa Park, from water infrastructure to the gardens to educating school children for the future.”

To learn more about Friends of Balboa Park, visit friendsofbalboapark.org.

—Delle Willett has been a marketing and public relations professional for over 30 years, with an emphasis on conservation of the environment. She can be reached at [email protected].