LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Moraga Rotary donates over $28K to Town


Moraga Rotarian John Erickson presents to Moraga Mayor Kymberleigh Korpus a check for $28,373. In background are Town Manager Cynthia Battenberg, Council Member Roger Wykle, and Vice Mayor Mike McCluer, who is also a Moraga Rotarian. Photo provided

Moraga Rotary Club donated a check for $28,373 to the town of Moraga at the Feb. 12 council meeting, which was the unspent balance of the funds raised for the Lamorinda All-Access Playground at Moraga Commons, which was dedicated in 2018. Rotarian John Erickson, co-chairman for the project committee, gave a brief history of the origination, planning, fundraising, construction, and completion of this playground, which is the largest privately funded gift to the town. About $345,000 was raised by Rotary from foundations, charitable organizations, and individuals, and the town of Moraga contributed the land for the project plus significant funds for site preparation, parking lot and sidewalk improvements, and other costs around the playground site.

The idea for a small playground was proposed by Moraga Rotarian Cliff Dochterman, former Moraga Citizen of the Year, as a gift to Moraga on the 50th anniversary of Moraga Rotary's formation, and the concept of a playground for special needs was soon guided into a playground for children of all abilities. This concept proved to be very popular with the community, making sufficient fundraising possible to build a much larger playground than originally conceived.

The Town Council and staff were enthusiastic supporters of the playground, and offered the site at the Commons rather than have it at Rancho Laguna Park where it was first conceived, and were very cooperative throughout the entire process.

Moraga Rotary is a 53-year-old service club within Rotary International, one of the five Clubs in Lamorinda, and one of about 33,000 Rotary Clubs in about 200 countries. Regular meetings are held on most Tuesdays at Michael's Restaurant in Moraga. If you are interested in information about Rotary, please contact moragarotary@comcast.net or visit the website at moragarotary.com, or call Brian South, president-elect at (925) 260-2143.