Hello Curlers!

First of all, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support recently, and we hope you had as wonderful a Holiday Season as we did. We’ve been working hard over the last couple months on the Dedicated Ice effort and would like to update everyone on what we’ve been working on.

At this point, we have received verbal approval of our Conditional Use Permit (CUP) from our Reviewing Planner at the City of Oakland, and are just waiting on formal approval. The receipt of formal approval will trigger (4) Months FREE RENT from our landlord, and will enable us to submit the Building Permit with the City. We expect the Building Permit to take 2-3 Months to process, and then we’ll be able to start Construction!

To date, we have raised around $300,000 towards our new facility, which includes all direct donations and signed loan agreements, and we’re currently working with a number of other individuals, curling clubs, and corporations to procure more funds over the next couple of months as we approach construction. (Note that we try to keep the ticker on the website as accurate as we can but sometimes have to wait for funds to be deposited into our accounts before we can update it. For example, donations made through Facebook are not added to our total until they’ve been disbursed to us.) To simplify our needs with rounded estimates, we project the following:

Cost of Getting to Construction: $250,000 (October 1 – April 15)

Cost of Preparing the Building: $250,000 (April 15 – July 1)

Cost of Installing Ice: $400,000 (July 1 – September 1)

Cost of Additional Amenities (Phase 2): $250,000 (TBD)

Keep in mind, these costs are conservative estimates rounded up to give you a sense of how the money will be spent, and when it will be spent, and we are looking into a number of solutions that will either significantly lower the cost, or defer the cost to a later period. What this means, is that we currently have enough money to begin the construction, but we still need more to complete the work.

Fortunately, we have a golden opportunity in front of us with the fast approaching Olympic season, and this is where we need your help. Our club has already booked dozens of Corporate Events, Learn to Curls, and other events between now and April that have the potential to bring in loads of new members, and with them, more volunteers, more expertise, and more resources. However, we will never be able to realize this potential without your help to spread the joy of curling to everyone who steps onto our ice. If you’re reading this now, we know how much you care about curling, and there’s no better way to grow the sport than to show the sport to others. If you have a couple of hours to spare on a Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday night, or maybe some flexibility to assist with a daytime Corporate Event, we need you out there! The Olympic Committee will be rolling out some new benefits for all volunteers shortly (retroactive January 1) so please take the time to visit the volunteer page at www.bayareacurling.com/volunteer and help us out!

In addition to the immediate need for on-ice volunteers, we also have a pressing need for off-ice volunteers. As the various sub-committees have developed their plans for the new facility, we have generated a list of things we will need from you all to make this dream a reality. Whether you’re a skilled corporate fundraiser, a plumber, or someone with nice handwriting, we need your help! Check out the DI Volunteer list and Good & Services page see how you can best support Dedicated Ice.

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