The annual fundraiser of Rosie the Riveter Trust is just two weeks off – Saturday, March 21, 2009. Click here for your invitation. Our plan is to introduce you to a different location in the park each year. Last year, it was the opening of the Ford Building Craneway. This year’s theme is “Discover Your Park,” and a team of experts will take you through a series of interactive presentations to show you things you never knew existed. This years’ event will be held, courtesy of Auto Warehousing, in the former Shipyard 3 Machine Shop, a building that has never before been open to the public.

We invite your company or organization to consider sponsoring a table, and information about levels of sponsorship are on the attached invitation. Individual tickets are $150 each.

Make checks out to:

Rosie the Riveter Trust

Discover Your Park!

2163 Meeker Avenue, #220

Richmond, CA 94804

For more information about the Discover Your Park Dinner, please call Event Co-Chair Jane Bartke at 510.235.1315.

This is going to be an exciting year for the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park. Money to construct the Visitor Center is in the National Park budget through the Stimulus package. It could be up and running this year.

So much is happening in Richmond’s front yard national park, and Rosie the Riveter Trust is playing key role. See the Winter 2008-09 Park Newsletter and events for January-February and March-April.

Following is a short explanation about donations to Rosie the Riveter Trust.

Rosie the Riveter Trust is the official non-profit partner of the National Park Service for Rosie the Riveter WW II Home Front National Historical Park.

Rosie the Riveter WW II Home Front National Historical Park was established in Richmond, CA in 2000 to tell the story of how Americans at home pulled together in a unified effort to win World War II. There are many threads to this story about “The Arsenal of Democracy,” including the first time in American history that minorities and women were integrated into and became an essential component of the industrial workforce and the first time that child care was routinely provided for working women and the establishment of a comprehensive health care system. Richmond, CA was chosen as the national park’s location because it was the location of the largest and most productive shipyard in the world in WW II, and much of the historic infrastructure is still intact.

Your donations will help fund projects and programs to assist the National Park service in telling this compelling story, and your donations will be recognized in the Rosie the Riveter Hall of Honor.

Rosie the Riveter Trust has raised nearly $2.5 million in grants and donations for Rosie the Riveter WW II Home Front National Historical Park but needs much more to preserve deteriorating infrastructure and help pay for interpretive programs. Your contributions, in any amount, are urgently needed.

Click here for the Rosie the Riveter Trust Strategic Plan and IRS Exemption Letter.

The park is the location and the theme for an annual “Home Front Festival” of national significance that debuted on September 28, 29 and 30, 2007. The festival kick off featured a fundraising dinner in the Craneway of the former Ford Assembly Building (future location of the park’s Visitor Center) for Rosie the Riveter Trust, the official non-profit partner of the Rosie the Riveter WW II Home Front National Historical Park.

Projects and programs undertaken and underwritten by Rosie the Riveter Trust include:

·         Established a website (www.rosietheriveter.org) and continue to maintain it.

·         Contributed to cost of oral histories video by Jon Plutte.

·         Paid for attendance by Richmond Planning Commissioners, Design Review Board members and Historic Preservation Advisory Board members to historic preservation conferences and workshops.

·         Paid for preparation of successful National Register of Public Places nomination for Atchison Village.

·         Paid food and beverage costs, photography, consultant expenses, space rentals, transportation and other costs for National Park Service workshops, recognitions charrettes, tours, receptions, and other events.

·         Paid food and beverage costs for volunteers working for the National Park Service

·         Obtained a $30,000 grant and paid for preparation of scripts for use in future interpretive presentations.

·         Organized and helped pay for the relocation of the Whirley Crane to Shipyard 3 at a value of approximately $130,000.

·         Funded a temporary public outreach position for the National Park Service.

·         Prepared a Strategic Plan through 2008.

·         Secured a $2 million matching grant from the California Cultural and Historical Endowment (CCHE) the Maritime Child Care Center and facilitated an additional $5.5 million in commitments from the West Contra Costa Unified School District and the City of Richmond to fully fund the project.

·         Executed a 30-year lease with Contra Costa County for the Maritime Child Care Center for $1 per year.

·         Distributed $33,492.20 for community outreach activities including park tours for community leaders and funding a part-time community outreach position.

·         Debuted a webstore (www.rosiehomefrontstore.com).

·         Manned a booth at the 2006 National League of Cities Congress of Cities in Reno and at Richmond’ Juneteenth Festival.

·         Participated in the National Trust for Historic Preservation Partners for Preservation Bay Area Initiative and secured a $105,000 in supplemental grants for the Maritime Child Care Center.

·         Entered into an MOU between the East Bay Center for Performing Arts and the Rosie the Riveter Trust for 10-lessons, standard-based curriculum focused on the themes of World War II Home Front.

·         Presented a “3-Minute Success Story” on the moving of the Whirley Crane at the 2006 California Preservation Conference in Sacramento.

·         Worked with the City of Richmond to install directional signage from Interstate 580 to Rosie the Riveter WW II Home Front National Historical Park.

·         Participated in the planning of the 2007 and 2008  Rosie the Riveter Home Front Festival and contributed $20,000 toward festival costs.

·         Planned and executed the keynote event at the 2007 Rosie the Riveter gala Fundraiser and contributed with author Emily Yellin as speaker.

·         Paid for lodging expenses so that park Ranger Betty Soskin could attend the Obama inauguration as a VIP.

·         Contributed $5,000 toward Bay Trail design costs for Shipyard 3.

·         Organized and paid start-up costs for a Rosies Girls chapter in Richmond.