Crestmoor fields get community foundation grant

“It’s been wonderful for the foundation to invest in these really meaningful projects throughout San Bruno that touch very different parts of the community,” she said.

The decision to contribute millions toward revamping the Crestmoor fields — creating eight striped, overlapping artificial turf soccer fields for youth sports and recreational purposes — was made with the community in mind.

The former Crestmoor High School site has long been owned by the San Mateo Union High School District after the high school’s closure in the 1980s, allowing for youth soccer leagues to continue to play there.

Now, the site is being sold to a new developer — but a commitment of $3.6 million in development impact fee credits from the city, as well as the contribution from the foundation, will allow for fields to be expeditiously reconstructed.

“It would be a tremendous loss for San Bruno to lose those fields,” Hatamiya said. “If you ever go up there on a fall Saturday, the place is swarming with kids. It is really the heart of youth sports in San Bruno.”

The developer has agreed to construct the fields as part of the project, and construction is anticipated to begin in 2025.

Another strategic investment that the San Bruno Community Foundation has decided to make is in the city’s exchange program with the city of Narita, Japan.

Like San Bruno, Narita is also home to a major international airport, and the two municipalities have had a longtime relationship since the 1990s.

Narita sends around 10 middle school students, teachers and dignitaries to San Bruno each spring and, in exchange, Parkside Intermediate students and teachers visit Narita in the summer.

But the program was put on pause during the pandemic, and costs of around $2,000 per middle schooler made the exchange program prohibitively expensive for many, Hatamiya said.

The community foundation’s three-year grant will allow San Bruno students to only pay $500 for the international trip. It will also help subsidize the Narita delegation’s visit to the United States and provide funding for the San Bruno Education Foundation to revitalize the program long term.

“They really need to sort of reinvigorate the program, develop some new funding sources,” Hatamiya said. “The San Bruno Education Foundation will get a little bit of money to get the fundraising and sponsorship efforts off the ground … when our investment sunsets they will have developed successful sponsorships.”

Educational initiatives and San Bruno youth were also a priority for the foundation’s community grant program, which allows local organizations to apply for funding, Hatamiya said. The foundation itself contributes $200,000 and $100,000 was donated by YouTube and Google.org.

“There’s a lot of school-based education programs and then there are a smattering of others,” she said.

Those include $10,000 to support the Capuchino High School music program, $20,000 to support a food systems educator for local schools and $9,000 to Junior Achievement of Northern California to provide San Bruno high school students to learn workforce readiness and entrepreneurship skills.

The grants also have an emphasis on basic needs programming, like $5,000 to the HomeMore Project, which specifically designs backpacks for homeless individuals, and $6,500 for grief counselors at the San Bruno Senior Center.