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On Sunday, March 5, 2023, San Francisco’s Oakland Bay Bridge went dark after the “Bay Lights”, an art installation that has been lit up for ten years was turned off. A fundraiser campaign has been created to collect financial aid to bring back the lights.
March 5 marked the 10-year anniversary of the Bay Lights’ initial Grand Lighting. It has remained dark since Sunday. The Bay Lights’ current LED system is falling at a rate that is faster than it can be repaired. The system must be replaced with a new custom-engineered one that can perform in San Francisco Bay’s harsh environmental conditions.
The total amount needed for the lights to return is $11M. The organizers are raising ten gifts of $1M each from major philanthropists. The remaining $1M is being sought to be raised through smaller gifts, which everyone else can participate in donating.
Till now, the fundraiser has been able to raise $60,968 over a span of four days. The campaign was launched on March 2,2023.
How to make a donation on crowdfunder to help restore San Francisco's Bay Bridge Lights
If an individual wishes to donate to the crowdfunding campaign, they can visit the following website - https://crowdfundr.com/TheBayLights360?ref=ab_7r5VXBE4HOC7r5VXBE4HOC - to make their contributions.
Upon entering the website, they will find two options on the right side of the home page. They can click on the "Donate" option if they wish to fund some money.
The user will be directed to another page where seven different values of donations would be given as options: $10, $50, $100, $360, $500, $1000, and $5000. Another option, "Other", is given in case one wishes to donate a different amount which is not there in the options.
If the person wants to donate any one amount among these seven options, they can click on the amount and proceed with the payment transaction. There are several other boxes and fields below that the donator would need to fill up.
Donors have to choose whether they want to make a one-time contribution or a recurring one. Next, they will be asked to choose a team name that inspired them to participate in the fundraiser campaign.
Users will also get the option to either choose to keep their names or the contributed amounts undisclosed. They also have to provide their email id. Moreover, if they want to get updates about the campaign and other projects from the organizer, they can check the box below. Donors can unsubscribe from these emails at any time.
If one wishes to leave a message with their donation, they can write it up in the box at the bottom of the page and then continue with the payment procedure. On the next page, the payment methods will be displayed, and one can choose their convenient payment option to complete the donation.
Donors can also share the fundraiser link via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook Messenger, Email, and other websites by copying it. Moreover, links to the other five crowdfunding campaigns to help restore the Bay Bridge Lights have been shared on the page.
If a person wants, they can also make a non-cash gift. For that, they have to contact Ben Davis or David Hatfield, whose email ids have been shared on the page.
An individual can also assist the non-profit art organizer, Illuminate, to collect the total amount sooner by launching their own fundraisers. In that case, they can contact Patricia Suflita Wilson. Her email id has also been shared.
The Bay Bridge Lights could return by November 2023 if enough fund is raised
The organizer wrote that with the help of the donors, the artist Leo Villareal would be able to restore the glory of the Bay Bridge Lights more than ever.
They also said that the number of programmable LEDs will increase by double, which is nearly 50,000. The enhancement will make the artwork on the Bay Bridge visible to all the communities around San Francisco Bay. They added:
“And for the first time, we seek to have the lights be safely visible to drivers on the Bay Bridge, creating a world-class nighttime public art portal into San Francisco.”
The art organizer urged everyone to join them in helping restore the public art masterpiece.
Earlier on Sunday night, people were found taking pictures of the Bay Bridge Lights to get one last glimpse of the iconic artwork before it got switched off. The nearby residents have expressed that they would miss seeing the lights from their windows.
If the organizer can raise enough money, it could take around eight to ten months to complete the project and light up the Bay Bridge again. At the earliest, the lights could make a comeback sometime in November this year.
