Big Ag checks absent from campaign to save Salinas libraries.

The sun shone in spurts Sunday at the John Steinbeck Library in Salinas, where locals were holding a party to mark the author’s 103rd birthday. The celebration—complete with a sheet cake smothered in purple and white frosting, balloons and a couple dozen participants—brought in another $400 to help keep Salinas libraries open.

It’s not a huge amount of money given the millions it takes to operate Salinas’ three libraries annually. But it’s exactly the kind of effort residents are undertaking all over the city. From lemonade stands to trinket-bracelet sales, smaller, personal donations seem to be driving the so-called Rally Salinas! fund, a campaign to raise $500,000 by a looming June deadline to keep libraries open on a rotating schedule through the end of the year.

With the exception of a few big checks written early on in the campaign, cash from community leaders and deep-pocketed businesses is notably absent.

The campaign got off the ground a month ago with a $25,000 anonymous donation from a Salinas rancher. The same woman ponied up another $75,000 last week, keeping good on her promise to match the first $75,000 raised. Her second hefty donation rolled the fund over into its press-time total of nearly $160,000. The rest of the money, however, minus a $12,500 donation from actor Bill Murray’s AT&T winnings, hasn’t been about big checks from big donors. It’s been about many, many little donations.

Mayor Anna Caballero, who says she donated to the fund but declined to say how much, says that’s what Rally Salinas! was intended to do: bring every community member out of the woodwork and into a proactive role in rescuing his or her own community.

“We never wanted to just go into this expecting one huge contribution, for a handful of big donors to solve the problem,” Caballero says. “We wanted everyone involved. I’ve had more people come up to me and say they’ve never taken the opportunity to get involved before, but they finally are. That’s what we wanted.”

To date, however, the county’s big guns, the ones who could incorporate those lemonade stands and turn them into for-profit chains that bleed excess cash, have yet to be called on the carpet.

“Oh, believe me, we will seek big donations from the ag industry,” says Councilmember Jyl Lutes. “I’m waiting for a list of people to call, and then you can be sure I’ll be on the phone.”

It may be time to pick up the phone.

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When Caballero first sold Rally Salinas! to residents last month, the mayor set a 120-day deadline to raise the necessary funds.

“I have no doubt that everyone who’s said they’ll donate, the councilmembers, businesspeople, whatever, will donate,” Caballero says.

At press time, however, two big donors account for more than two-thirds of the fund’s total. And only one Salinas councilmember, along with the mayor, has made a financial contribution to Rally Salinas!

Lutes hasn’t donated to the fund, although she says her filled-out check is just waiting to be dropped off. Councilmembers Gloria De La Rosa, Maria Giuriato and Sergio Sanchez also say they intend to give money to help save the libraries. But they have yet to write a check.

Councilmember Robert Ocampo could not be reached for comment.

Councilmember Janet Barnes, however, has donated generously to Rally Salinas!

“This is like a grapevine,” Barnes says. “We really want to start at the very core and work outward. It’s going to be an entire community effort by the time we’re done.”

Salinas high school kids have rallied around the community effort and are selling bracelets to raise money for the libraries. Students from McKinnon Elementary plan to help out with the sales, too. Local restaurants like Chapala and Hometown Buffet will donate percentages of their profits to the campaign. Madonna del Sasso and Sacred Heart parishioners say they will host a fundraiser of some kind, possibly a dinner.

Maybe they’re all following the kind of leadership shown by young Andrea Ceja of Salinas who handed over $33.28 of her own money to Rally Salinas! at a February’s city council meeting.

Not all of Salinas Valley’s strapping agriculture industry has been as willing to give away its cash.

“We intend to at some point,” is the promise from lettuce kings Tanimura & Antle.

In a prepared statement, a spokesperson from salad giant Fresh Express told the Weekly, “Fresh Express has not yet had an opportunity to talk to its representatives about the company’s participation.”

No word yet on whether or not its new parent company will participate, either.

“I don’t know anything about it,” says a spokesman for new kid on the block Chiquita Brands, which just acquired Fresh Express for just shy of a billion dollars. “But it’s the kind of thing we’d probably look into very seriously.”

Driscoll’s Strawberry gave the Weekly a similar line. “It’s not that we don’t want to be involved,” says a spokesperson, “we’re just going through some transition. But we’re slated to discuss this at our next donations committee meeting.”

In the meantime, birthday parties and bracelets and kids mowing lawns keep the fund slowly growing, offering Salinas libraries a ray of hope.