Brentwood citizens organization changes its mission, marketing to help with 80-acre Smith option 

By CAROL STUART
Brentwood Home Page
The Citizens for Brentwood Green Space will start off 2012 with planning steps for its new resolution and identity, a goal of raising $300,000 over the next five years to help the city purchase another 80 acres to go with the new 322-acre Marcella Vivrette Smith Park.

While specifics plans aren’t ironed out, one idea by the volunteer group includes a fundraising event and/or project with the Brentwood Photography Group. Another could be a Walk in the Park-type event, possibly at another location since the park is still undeveloped and doesn’t yet have the capability of ingress/egress to handle a large public gathering.

“We don’t want to lose sight of the bigger goal to focus on opportunities to add more green space to the park system,” said Gil Hutchinson, CBGS spokesman. “That’s where we have to spend our efforts. The city’s done what it’s done, and it’s time for citizens to commit to step up. If people like green space, then we need to put in the time and effort to acquire this and other properties.”

Photos by Angie Miller

The fundraising drive, announced in September, marks a departure from previous activities for the group – which began in 2004 to get community interest in preserving some of the still-undeveloped Turner Farm which was under discussion for development at that time.

The non-profit group launched a petition drive and got a referendum to put up $50 million of city monies to buy the property for green space, but the measure failed.

“We’ve been an advocacy group for green space, that’s what I consider it, to try to use every opportunity to speak out and provide education about its value to community and opportunities that might be out there,” Hutchinson said.

But then about a year ago, the City of Brentwood acquired the Smith Park including the Ravenswood home for a city-record expenditure of $10 million and pledged another $10 million to develop it into a park. And there is an option to purchase an additional 80 acres by the end of 2013.

“That kind of changed the game in terms of the landscape,” Hutchinson said. “… At that point we decided that the city has done a lot for the community and as much public interest as there is in green space, it’s time for us to proverbially put our money where our mouth is.”

Hutchinson said “study after study” by the city shows how much residents value park land and other green space, and how much impact the group could make if backed by all those in favor of it. He repeated a comment by new city commissioner Jill Burgin saying, “Sometimes it’s got to take some green to make some green.”

The land is privately held and is zoned R-1, which means one home could be built on every 3 acres or more. While the city’s option expires in two years, the Citizens for Brentwood Green Space goal’s is to raise $300,000 by the end of five years for the $3 million needed funds.

“At the end of 2013 something has to be done,” Hutchinson said. “It was never intended to say we will raise this before the option expires, just to say this is our commitment to the city -- there’s … a predicted source of income that they can plan for and use. … Our intent is to try to generate as much community support as we can.”

Project with Brentwood photo group will turn into some sort of fundraiser

One of the “hottest” points of interest for fundraising strategies has been discussions with the area photo club, Brentwood Photography Group. About 50 photographers went out to Smith Park on a Saturday the first week of November to document the park – and the photos will be used in some sort of way for an exhibit and/or book, prints, etc.  

“What we’re trying to work on right now is to figure out the best venue and opportunity for an exhibit,” Hutchinson said. “We have been working on that, and it may be something open to the entire community or more of an exclusive event.”

BPG may also use the photos from that day – or from any other beautiful green space in Brentwood – for a contest, possibly even one of the themed monthly contests already conducted by the group.

“The idea is we would document that visually with the photographs and use those photographs to promote the green space project, and not just that project but maybe future projects,” said Robert McCurley of the photo club.

Some of the ideas, none of which are finalized, include offering prints to auction at an event or fundraiser, and also use the photos at exhibits, McCurley said.

“We've talked about putting a book of these images together, or possibly a calendar,” McCurley said.

The morning shoot was well-attended with 40-plus photographers, and McCurley said there is a high interest in landscape photography among members of Brentwood Photgraphy Group.

 “It was a foggy morning, which was good for photography, and it ended about lunchtime,” he said.

BPG was involved in a similar effort for the Harpeth River Watershed group, but took about 6 months to document and later held an exhibit at the Terrazo downtown. While the photo club doesn’t take up issues, it does a lot of work for charity organizations.

"We're a very non-partisan group, but we do have a lot of members who have high interest in documenting the environment," McCurley said.

Even with a contest, the private photographers would each decide whether to take part in helping with the cause to raise funds, Hutchinson said. Whether to have an exclusive event or not would depend on what the group hopes to accomplish – raise more awareness or target big donors through a fundraiser.

“We think it’ll be sometime in March,” Hutchinson said about a possible contest or event. “We’re still very much in progress on that.”

Green space group working on walking event, also branding identity with new logo

The CBGS group will need volunteers and resources so any interested part is welcome to get involved, including making donations. While about 1,300 are on email blasts, a core group of about 40 is really active in the organization.

“As a relatively small organization, we’re putting our efforts into where we think we can get the most return,” he said.

CBGS also may put together a walk to raise money and to promote more awareness. There are some local Middle Tennessee organizations including Volkssport Walking Association of America and WalkNashville, but the Brentwood group is undecided and hasn’t really talked to another group to co-sponsor such a public event.

“Whether with a walking club or not, we’re talking about a walk in the park, but we’re not sure if we can do it in Smith Park next year,” Hutchinson said in late 2011. The park isn’t really ready to support large events yet, he noted.

More plans will be divulged beginning later this month, he added. “We’re very comfortable we’ll hit our goal eventually,” Hutchinson said.

Meanwhile, the Citizens for Brentwood Green Space also has worked on some marketing and public relations strategies with the help of Brentwood-based J&A Integrated Thinking, which worked on a pro bono basis. The firm has worked with such national companies as KFC, and the company’s president is a Brentwood resident who is friends with CBGS founder and chairman Steven Prince and serves on the board.

“Because we're a Brentwood-headquartered agency, we offered to help them with the branding effort,” said Joe Harkins, VP group director. “Mr. Prince's vision is that we needed to get the word out, and we needed to do it in a professional manner. … We've been in Brentwood forever, we feel like it's in our best interest to help, we believe in their vision and Mr. Prince’s vision, and we're happy to help.”

J&A created a logo and identity package for Citizens for Brentwood Green Space, and developed files to help update the current website as well as an email blast template and possibly other marketing materials for approaching donors.

The branding package included the basic colors and the symbol for the new logo.

“Quite honestly we showed them probably more than a dozen logos,” Harkins said. “We wanted something that had a timeless look, that felt current -- sort of like a tile for an iPhone app, something that was very simple, would work online and offline. And obviously green was going to be a color involved.”

The logo chosen was green as the dominant color, with a heart and a sprouting leaf.

“There is a long-term vision involved here, and that goes back to brand personality,” Harkins said. “We wanted something that could be around permanently. Virginia is for Lovers, created 30 to 40 years ago, was mentioned as one of those grassroots efforts that turned into something permanent that is still around.

“We wanted to create something for the Brentwood Green Space organization, for all those terrific folks who volunteer their time, to allow them to pursue their long-term vision to keep Brentwood a wonderful place to live.”

Hutchinson said he’s lived or worked in most major cities in the United State and moved to Brentwood 12 years ago from Central Florida.

“When I arrived here, one thing that struck me how was how beautiful it was, with open pastures and trees,” he said. “…Development happens but you hate to see it sprawl like Atlanta. I said man this is worth something preserving, fighting for. … I believe it’s a beautiful community and you should preserve the quality of life as best as you can.”

For more information, go to the group’s website at www.brentwoodgreenspace.org or like Brentwood Green Space on Facebook.