Then maybe these 20,000 to 30,000 people should all donating a buck or two, no?

I played competitive sports my entire life and the only good local soccer fields I played on which were funded using taxpayer dollars was Pioneer Park.

Compare the different between the baseball fields in the Olympia School District and Tumwater School District. In Olympia the fields are an absolute wreck (the last I checked. I haven't driven over there since the FieldTurf was put onto the stadium field). In Tumwater? They're beautiful. Why? It's not because the Tumwater taxpayers put more money toward the fields. They look good because volunteers went out and donated their money and labor.

The girl's softball field at Tumwater was done almost entirely by private citizens. The same with the baseball field by the Church of the Nazarene.

If you really want something you'll start asking the people who enjoy the service to put up or shut up.

If the people aren't donating money toward the Procession, maybe it shouldn't survive.

EDIT: I didn't mean to sound as if closing up shop was the only option, as I'm sure there are many volunteers for the Procession. Maybe the Procession should scale-down, then, to remain small enough so the volunteer force can meet the workload.

Call me crazy, but I think the city has more pressing matters that they should be spending their limited budget on (infrastructure, services).

Yeah, you are both right! The 500 or more people who came to the art studio this year should have donated the approximate $5-10 it costs to provide supplies to them. The cost of heating alone is $3,000 per month. Wax for batik is $30 a slab. Glue, paint, brushes, hot glue sitcks, all cost money and many of the participants never pay. Last year all of Mr. Sterling's personal tools that he put there for people to use freely were stolen. There are also those who are very generous, but it never coevers the total amount and people end up paying from their own pockets. The Procession is an invitation to public. There is a suggestion to donate, but the announcements also say, no one will be turned away for lack of funds. This year, there were many less volunteers and we all knew why. It is directly related to the smear campaign run by The Olympian and the possible feelings people have about what they think happened given the information they've been given. So, we will get a long as best we can. But, if your talking about more important things that need to be funded, why did Arts Walk get such a large amount of money. Aren't they also just a touchy, feely event?