Lights in the Park....Fundraiser?

I worked all day...which means that I had the radio on "Channel 9" all day, which means I got to hear the voice of Lenny Ricchuiti all day long telling us how wonderful the "Lights in the Park" was for the youth of the city....over and over and over. Don't ask me why I didn't get up and change it, you know, sometimes it just didn't get my attention until that voice came on there...that voice which makes me think of sexual harrassment.

So, around noon I decided to take a break and stroll on over to the park to say howdy to Lenny. Not much going on there, some lights were up, there were trailers placed throughout the park which, I'm assuming, held the display...boxes were under the trailers and a woman sat by one of the pickup trucks shuffling through the yellow leaves looking for, I assume, walnuts. (Are there other types of nuts here? I'm used to paper shell pecans...say that the right way, even in your head...pakahns.)

I remembered back to the pre-primary (pre my meeting with Lenny's accuser) and thought about my discussion with Mr. Ricchuiti in reference to the amount of money brought in by the event. He told me he just outsources it now, as a matter of fact...it's not even worth the trouble anymore. Hindsight, I assume it wasn't worth the trouble since he planned on changing jobs at that point in his life. Didn't happen...and now we have another year with Lights in the Park.

So, I pulled his brand spankin' new 990 which, oddly, states that the mission of the organization is to provide lights in the park. I think it's an error but it's rather distracting to someone who reads 990s rather often. So, seems that Mr. Richuitti paid Midwest Display $129,850 for, well, the display. I also see that the City of Albany provided $20,000 inkind support (though I'm assuming that's for the use of the park for 7 weeks...including the Playhouse which I had to pay $250 to use for a couple of hours.) Oh yeah, and I was required to pay the police officers for my event...oh, and I had to bring my own generators...couldn't use the City's power....wonder if Ole Len got comped on all that too?

Now, remember, I'm just assuming that $20K from the City was for this event which leaves me wondering if that covers PAL's use of the park for the summer movie series also. Nice deal if ya can get it. Oh yeah, and the lights are erected by volunteers, none of which were very visible when I hit the park and it's sponsored by Hannaford...I know this because the name Hannaford is all over the display.

Now, my problem with this is that I would never support any organization with which Mr. Ricchuitti was associated and I'm part of the city. Oh, AND, even with the City's support, PAL is charging people for entry! At least when the park is tied up by the city we all have free entry to spend our money. So, we are providing free space for PAL to outsource its fundraising. Ya see, a "for profit" organization is getting use of our park to make some money and the "leftover" goes to PAL. Now, lots of nonprofits consider this okay...I don't. It kind of reminds me of the telemarketing companies that call around for charitable donations and give the "left over" to the charity they are representing. Actually, based on the other NY PALs they would be clearing a larger percentage of the take had they gone with the telemarketers. That is, of course, if they have a clean database which I'm betting they don't.

Oh, yeah, and each time I hear that all the money from Lights in the Park will be going to PAL, I cringe...ya see, when you look at the revenue and the expenses, 68% of the revenue goes to "for profit" companies. That's not including the city's kicking in $20K for 50 days (or so) use of a majority of our park, police for safety for those same 50 days...oh, and you can bet there's some benes that go along with volunteering for PAL.

And while I'm on a Lenny rant....who the hell is that Christmas Tree sale over in Lincoln Park benefitting?(Wonder how much we the people donate for that brightly lit real estate. Yeah, I got a call on it...rumor has it that the money spent on Christmas trees isn't making into any of Lenny's nonprofit organizations. Now, you can imagine what the speculation has been so I pulled the Little League's 990 (Informational form) as well as PALs. I'm not seeing anything there either. So, where is this money going? I used to do tree sales for a small nonprofit and the profits were always recorded. What gives? Now, I'm not accusin' anyone, I'm just sayin'....if you're selling trees to help the little league, show how much revenue is generatin' in your annual report. And, I understand I could be completely off...so, Mr. Ricchuiti, if you are raising money for some other organization, let me know...I don't have any issues pulling any 990s to clear this up.

Here's a tip, Len, my man...don't give inerviews that will run long enough to make me put on my research hat to find out what's really going on with your fundraising antics....and don't tell ACO that you are cancelling the event because you don't have time and because it didn't benefit the organiztion enough to  consume your time only to run it anyway. Oh hell, maybe I'm just in a mood...check that...no, this is wrong.