Hard times hit Palma Sola Botanical Park because of COVID-19. Here’s how you can help
Palma Sola Botanical Park, one of those places that feed the soul with 10 acres of quiet beauty, including rare palms, fruiting and flowering trees and other subtropical plants, is a natural choice for weddings and other special events.
Special events, including celebrations of life, quinceaneras, anniversaries, yoga and gardening classes, and art shows, help pay the bills to keep the park at 9800 17th Ave. NW, open to the public, free of charge.
“We were on track to have the most fabulous year with bookings. We were in good shape, and we had all of these weddings booked. Then in February we started getting cancellations,” staff member Deirdre Van Collie said of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The cancellations have continued for the past six months, and are now starting to hit for the second half of the year as well, presenting a huge challenge to park operations, which receive no financial support from local government.
As a result, the park foundation’s board of directors has launched a gofundme effort to raise $25,000 to cover expenses through the end of the year.
“Our goal of raising $25,000 is a hopeful one. With judicious management, these funds will permit the park to continue to operate through the end of the year. When COVID-19 hit our area hard and beaches, public gathering places and county parks in Manatee County were closed, our park was there to provide the public with a safe space to go,” the gofundme page says.
As of Tuesday, $625 had been raised.
“We are just trying to get enough operating money to keep the park going. To pay wages, and of course the power bills. The weddings, and meetings and yoga classes, all that has been canceled. There is really no income right now. We need just enough until the virus subsides or whatever happens to it,” said Greg Geraldson, chair of the park’s foundation board.
Nick Baden, a retired Bradenton attorney and volunteer at the park, vows that whatever happens, the park will not be closing.
“We have volunteers who will not let that happen. But we are on hard times like so many others,” Baden said. “We haven’t had any income for six months, not since the Giving Challenge. We lost $13,000 in event money the first month, and all of our weddings.”
The idea for a botanical park began in 1990 with residents and community groups working to save the 10-acre Manatee County Nursery site. The Palma Sola Botanical Park Foundation was created in 1993 to preserve the former nursery as green space and a park.
Although many events have been canceled, visitors continue to visit the park.
“It gives people a place to go, to get out of their house when dealing with stress and anxiety. It gives them a place to go where they can breathe deep,” Van Collie said.
For more information, visit https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/keep-palma-sola-botanical-park-open-and-free-to-all.
This story was originally published August 12, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
