This Saturday's "Fiesta in the Park" at Moss Beach Park will likely be a precursor to what organizers say they want for the park's future: a noisy, rowdy family gathering place.
It's set for Saturday, June 26 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the park, located on California Avenue in Moss Beach barely a stone's throw from Highway 1. It will include live and lively music, kids' games, food from local restaurants, a juggler, and a tile-painting project designed to individualize the park and raise funds toward finishing it.
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Admission is free, but funds will be raised through sales of tiles at $25 each, and of T-shirts.
Both kids and adults are invited to hand-paint an original design on a six-inch-square tile. These will be set in a wall at the rear of the park.
Designs are limited only by "their own imagination," Hill said.
The bands slated to play include rockers Hipshaker and the Rip Tides, the quartet Naturally Fermented which features local clarinetist Marc Marcus, and Paul Godwin, who sings kids' songs in English and Spanish.
There'll be plenty of food when romping families need nourishment, from El Gran Amigo (practically across the street), Ono's Hawaiian Grill, Twinberry Caf/, and Caf/ Lucca, formerly A Coastal Affair and specializing in pastries, panini sandwiches and gourmet coffee drinks.
Throughout the day, juggler Doug Nolan will stroll through the crowd and interact with visitors in "meet and greet" style, as well as do impromptu juggling. With 15 years' experience, performing under Rock Steady Juggling, he does educational shows in schools with themes around recycling, conflict resolution, or water usage.
"It's using juggling as a way to get the messages across," said Nolan, who also sometimes performs with friend Paul Godwin. "It certainly grabs their attention."
There will also be a raffle. Grand prize is $1,000, first prize is a Nikon Coolpix 5400 digital camera, second is a hand-painted, limited-edition cel created in celebration of the 15th season of television's "The Simpsons," and third is three days and two nights for four on the Russian River.
The prizes were all donated, said Hill: the camera from Nikon Precision Incorporated, the cel from "Simpsons" staff member Nancy Kruse, the vacation from an anonymous donor and the cash from funds raised from this event.
It all forms a basis for park's next phase.
The park is on land owned by the nonprofit Coastside Preservation and Recreation, Inc., which in turn received it from previous owner Laura Hawkins in 1971. Members of its board of directors had purchased three large play structures three years ago, but installing them became delayed in the permit process.
Then another board member learned of playground design firm Leathers and Associates of New York. For 30 years, this firm has organized some 1,600 community groups across the U.S. and Canada to create playgrounds.
Leathers and Associates has park templates on which to base groups, playgrounds and fund-raising plans. Construction takes place as Leathers project managers work with community volunteers.
The Moss Beach Park volunteers plan a five-day construction period from Sept. 29 through Oct. 3 this year.
A little grading has already been done, said Hill, himself an eight-year board member. The volunteers are working with a Leathers and Associates
playground design similar to that of the Friendship Park in Pacifica.
The design got Hill's attention. "This is, far and away, the most ambitious project for a park I've ever seen," he said.
When the play structures in the park are finished, he said, "it's going to be a fanciful wooden-based creation consisting of castles and climbing structures and swings."
Fund-raising efforts for the park include crafts fairs, booths at Dream Machines and a silent auction held by the Coastside Mothers' Club.
Hill estimates that park users range from two-dozen on an average weekend day to 300 during events.
He hopes to supplement fund-raisers by seeking grants and appealing to Coastside businesses.
The park, located on the east side of Highway 1, still faces a problem of safe access from the west side. Hill said he'd pondered an overpass or crosswalk, but realized such things were "out of the purview" of the board and organizers for now.
"It's not something that a nonprofit, even as well-organized as we are, can take care of," he said, adding that he would look into a task force to look further into this.
Fiesta in the Park is sponsored by Rich Gordon of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, San Mateo Parks
and Recreation, the Coastside Mothers' Club, Seton Medical Center Coastside (located in Moss Beach,) the Boys and Girls Club of the Coast-
side, Robin's Nest Preschool and the Coastside Collaborative for Children, Youth and Families.
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