Pumpkin Festival a Boon for Non-Profits The Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival is a huge civic effort. Some thirty-five non-profit and community service groups participate in the festival by operating food and game booths. For most, the festival is their most lucrative fund-raising event of the year, enabling them to raise a substantial portion of their annual budget from the two-day festival. An estimated $400,000 was raised by local community service groups from food, beverage, game and parking sales at last year’s Pumpkin Festival. By providing this opportunity for the non-profit sector, the Pumpkin Festival helps to perpetuate “giving" in the community, no small feat for a town without a base of large corporate donors.

In 2007, the Half Moon Bay Beautification Committee made $104,000 in grants and donations to Coastside non-profit groups, educational organizations and municipal agencies. Funding comes from proceeds from the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival, which has been operated and managed by the Beautification Committee since 1971. The grants and donations are above and beyond the estimated $400,000 raised annually by local community service groups from food, beverage, game and parking sales at the Pumpkin Festival.

In its 36-year history, the Beautification Committee has directly contributed more than $2.4 million dollars to coastside non-profit organizations and civic causes. “Supporting and strengthening the community is what the Pumpkin Festival is all about,” said Cameron Palmer, President of the Beautification Committee Board of Directors. “These organizations form the backbone of our community. Our Board of Directors is honored and delighted to support their outstanding work.

The largest single contribution ($25,000) went to the on-going maintenance and beautification of the Main Street downtown core. Among the efforts are seasonal planting of flowers, installation and repair of old-fashioned wooden benches, litter removal, cleaning, and year-round maintenance of Main Street. “When we started the festival in 1971, the goal was to raise money to restore Main Street," said Bev Ashcraft, an original member of the committee. “Not many people know that, for 36 years now, the Pumpkin Festival has been funding the little things that give Main Street its unique character and charm," she said.

Some of the organizations receiving funding include the Coastal Repertory Theater ($12,000), San Mateo County Sheriff Explorers Program ($5,760), I.D.E.S. Society ($5,000), City of Half Moon Bay Parks and Recreation Department ($3,400 for recreation programs), Coastside Medical and Dental Clinic ($3,300 for computer equipment), Half Moon Bay Fire Protection District ($3,200 for CPR program and materials), City of Half Moon Bay ($3,000 for a tree trimmer), Coastside Adult Day Health Center ($3,000 for caregiver support program), Senior Coastsiders ($3,000 for nutrition program), Half Moon Bay Little League ($3,000 for improvements to Smith Field,) Coastal Arts League ($2,500 for Pumpkin Festival poster design contest), Half Moon Bay High School Grad Night ($2,500), Seton Medical Center ($2,500 for kitchen supplies), Coastside Infant Toddler Center ($2,500 for new floors), Boys & Girls Club of the Coastside ($2,500 for facility repairs and upgrades), Agricultural Clean Water Initiative Foundation ($2,500), Coastside Family Medical Center ($1,500 for supplies), Young Actors Workshop ($1,500 for audio equipment), El Granada Education Fund ($1,500), La Honda Volunteer Fire Brigade ($1,340), No Strings Attached Breakfast ($1,000), Coastside RotaCare Clinic ($1,000 for medical supplies and services), Clean and Sober ($1,000), Coastside Parents Nursery School ($1,000 for bilingual resources, cots and mats).