The people who care about the Vashon Park District were at its last meeting to find out how bad the financial situation is and how the park district found itself in that situation. A straightforward, honest answer to our questions may have been, “We saw a need for more fields and got a $500,000 grant from the state, got excited and took on the project assuming matching grants would be found.”

Instead, we were insulted and told we didn’t know how to do math. We were also told there are “thousands” of people that use the fields. I believe it. Where were you? The baseball and soccer associations and other field users were missing from the meeting. Well, we need your help.

First we need to raise $88,000 to keep the park district afloat for the rest of the year. Then we need you to take over the fundraising for your fields because the majority (but not all) of the park district’s financial problems are due to the fields project. Then we can go back to the old policy of the park district providing seed money and grant-writing support and the groups raising the money before the project breaks ground.

We non-athletes will even help if we are asked without the insults, because we do care about our great park district that supports all of our endeavors.

— Kristin Pesman