This year, after you’ve given thanks; gotten your door buster deals; surfed for cyber bargains; and finished all of the leftovers, WaterFire Providence would like to introduce you to something new. #GivingTuesday is a “new day for giving back” that began in 2012 as a partnership between New York’s 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation. Now in its second year, #GivingTuesday’s mission is to “create a national day of giving at the start of the annual holiday season. It celebrates and encourages charitable activities that support non-profit organizations.”
Here at WaterFire we depend on the generosity our of donors and corporate sponsors for their support all year long, and we thank them very much for that support. During this season of giving and getting we’d like to take the opportunity to encourage you to participate in this year’s #GivingTuesday by making a donation on December 3rd to help support WaterFire. We have set a goal to raise $3,000 to help cover some of our seasonal operating costs.
We often speak about all of the hard work that goes into WaterFire; we have a loyal and dedicated staff and volunteer corps that put their heart and soul into making public art in Providence. You’ve also heard us mention that its very expensive to produce our events; each lighting costing between $50,000 and $75,000 to realize. But you may not know where that money is going. For our #GivingTuesday campaign we came up with some real world examples about how far your donation dollars will get us.
- Nearly 200 volunteers give their time to help us produce each WaterFire lighting.
Your donation of $15 can help provide breakfast, lunch and a pair of work gloves for a volunteer at one event. - At each full WaterFire lighting we illuminate close to 100 glowing blue stars at our Starry, Starry Night and Bridge of Stars installations.
Your donation of $25 will keep one star shining brightly all season. - On average each WaterFire lighting requires 18 cords of firewood, for those who don’t know one cord of wood neatly stacked occupies and area that is 4 feet wide by 8 feet long by 4 feet hight.
Your donation of $50 will keep one WaterFire brazier burning brightly for one night. - WaterFire presents torch lighting ceremonies and processions, ranging from 16 to over 300 torches, at most WaterFire lightings; although the torches themselves are re-usable they need to cleaned, re-wrapped, and re-fueled for each event.
Your donation of $100 will light-up 50 torches at one event. - WaterFire maintains a fleet of 8 trucks and 10 gas powered boats.
Your donation of $250 will keep the fleet fueled-up for one event. - One of the most popular special attractions at WaterFire are our Fire Dancers.
Your donation of $500 will help to keep these masters of flame and sparks lighting up the night. - In 2013 WaterFire introduced a new performance venue: The Music Stage on Steeple Street. Whether is was sounds of smooth jazz or soulful salsa music these performances allow WaterFire to showcase the wide range of talented local musicians from our community.
Your donation of $1500 will allow us to continue to book top notch talent on our performance stages.
Please join us on Tuesday, December 3rd to celebrate #GivingTuesday in 2013.
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Please check out the #GivingTuesday website to learn more about the nearly 7,000 partnership organization that are participating in this year’s #GivingTuesday and help spread the word about this new tradition of a day of giving.
If you are planning on supporting giving WaterFire during #GivingTuesday or if you have helped support us in the past please take a moment to leave us a comment below and tells us why you give. Let your generosity become an inspiration to others.
About the author
I've worked at WaterFire Providence since 2003. For the first 9 years of my career, I worked in the Production Shop learning all of the details that go into the physical production of the event. In 2012 transitioned to the role of managing WaterFire's social media and web presence. I now head up WaterFire Providence's digital projects including, web, social, databases, and our physical IT infrastructure.
