What's New

Nico Project Open!
The Nico Project opened to the public on 7-10-2007, Nico's birthday. A ribbon cutting ceremony with the city will be held on 7-19 at 8AM at Caper Acres. The Mayor, Park Director, and project volunteers will speak. The project required support from over 700 people and companies. In 12 months we raised nearly $120,000. Dozens of companies donated approximately $40,000 worth of time and materials. 90% of cash raised was spent on things kids can actually play on. The fundraising and planning occurred during a 19 month period, with construction taking 8 weeks.

We hope all of the families that use this playground enjoy their time together. There should be many memories formed here in this creative little corner of Caper Acres. And that was why the project was built.

The Art of Playing
Artists Gregg Payne, Robin Indar, and Rick Satava added the finishing touches for the sea monster. Gregg painted the sea monster and provided insight into color selection for other components of the project. Robin, working on a City of Chico art grant completed the tile mosaic for the sea monster head, and Rick donated the eyeballs for the sea monster that really bring the sculpture to life.

Sod-den Transformation
Bob Hill and Zamora Sod Farm arranged to have sod placed around the play structure to provide a clean transistion onto the rubbererized surface. And to give families a nice place to picnic.

Pebbles Flex Their Power
Pebble-Flex from New Jersey came out and spent a week working on the bouncy rubberized surface. The multi-color job took a lot of planning and some pretty hot afternoons in the Chico heat. Thanks guys.

New Urban Builders / Alpine Landscaping Step Up
Tom DiGiovanni and Joshua Pierce of New Urban Builders have committed to closing the loop on the Nico Project concrete work. These guys are going to form and pour the concrete for the entrance which includes two stylized anchor shaped seating walls. Alpine Landscaping, brought in by NUB, stamped the entrance with a wood-plank form.

Mathews Ready Mix Gets The Early Worm
Mathews Ready Mix concrete are building the highway 149 interchange as well as donating concrete to the Nico Project. In order to get both jobs done and keep Caper Acres open during normal hours they've been bringing in the concrete in the early AM.

7/11 Materials Rocks!
7/11 Materials has donated soil and road base (3/4" gravel) as the base components of the Nico Project play area. This donation will provide a firm footing for the softer poured-in-place material to be added later.

Payless Building Supply Lives Up to Its Name
Payless building supply has donated loads of lumber, stakes, and other materials used to build the "forms" needed for the concrete portions of the project. Thanks to these folks we defintiely had to "pay less" to build this playground.

Ed Brown Trucking Carries the Load
The good people at Ed`Brown Trucking have been transporting soil, road base (gravel) and were even able to get crusher dust (really fine gravel) donated to the project. They are donating this service and are another example of a great local company.

NorthStar Engineering Completes Survey
May 5th. NorthStar Engineering volunteers MarkHerrick, John Hanley, and John's son completed the survey for the Nico Project establishing elevations needed for the site work starting on May 7th. City engineer Jeff Jukkola arranged for NorthStar's volunteers.

Jess Serrao Volunteers to Build Sculpture Base
Jess Serrao, a concrete construction business owner, has volunteered to build the slab(s) for the Sea Monster sculpture, and to pour the 6 "springy toys" around the perimeter of the play area.

Guillon, Inc Volunteers to Build Project Perimeter
Doug Guillon and Bill Brouhard of Guillon, Inc. have volunteered to provide a crew to form the curb and seating wall perimeter of the Nico Project. This project is essential for the play area construction to move forward and is required to occur before the base rock underlying the rubberized play surface can be installed.

Baldwin Construction Gets Dirty Job
Baldwin Construction donated the top soil for leveling the playground area.

Link Engineering Moves Mountains
Link Engineering brought in a back-hoe and skip-loader to do site preparation and dig footings for the concrete perimeter that will contain the poured-in-place rubberized surface. Their work will consist of setting the play area elevations, spreading and compacting soil, road-base, and crusher dust in order for the surface to drain well and be level enough for installing the play structures.

Universal Precast selected for Sea Monster Sculpture
The sea monster sculpture, a center piece of the Nico Project will be built by Universal Precast and delivered to to Chico by mid-June for installation into the play area..

Little Discoveries Preschool Holds Fundraiser - The parents, students, and teachers raised $500 to help the Nico Project build the addition to Caper Acres. Thanks!!!

Home Depot Gives Nico Project $3,000 Community Impact Grant

Kompan Reduces Price of Play Structure by $9,800 To Help Out.

Soroptimist International of Chico Donate $1,000 to Nico Project

Chico Host Lions Donate $1,000 to Nico Project

Ultimate 80's Celebration at Sierra Nevada Big Room Raises $21,000+ for Nico Project!
About 150 people showed up and had a great time at our last big fundraiser for the Nico Project in 2006. We broke the $100,000 in 10 months. This was a super fun event and a break-dancing contest even broke out!

Thanks to all of our sponsors, inlcuding Sierra Nevada, and the people that worked so hard to put this event on. Pictures are coming soon.

Best Ball Golf Tournament Raises $23,000 for project!
27 Teams competed in a "best ball" tournament at Table Mountain Golf Course in Oroville. There were so many sponsors and auction items that this event quickly turned into the best fundraiser for the Nico Project yet.

The weather was beautiful and the golfing was great. Tony Cardoza put together the tournament with the help of a lot of Nico Project volunteers, and we took a huge step towards meeting our fundraising goals. Pictures of the event can be seen here.

Outlaw "Fill The Cleat" Raises Over $2,000
On a winning night the Outlaws beat the Silver Sox, fireworks were seen, and the Nico Project raised just over $2,000. Not bad for a few hours work. Thanks go to the Outlaws for putting the Nico Project in front of 3700 people. Special thanks go to Dave and Rashell Brobst, and The Linscheid Company who each purchased 100 tickets at reduced cost, so all proceeds from this event would go to the project.

Salmon Derby a Success, Raises Over $4,000 For Playground!
See photos and a summary of our creat Salmon Derby held at Scotty's on August 19th. Follow this link for details. Good job Randy, Kim, and Madison! Randy collected thousands of dollars in prizes and got local guides involved to help out and provide boats for anglers. It was a good time and done for a great cause.

4th of July Barbeque Provides Tasty Cookin's and Raises $2,700 for Play Structure!
Tina Day and volunteers for the Nico Project barbequed tri-tip and chicken at the 4th of July community celebration. This was a great event for the project and for the family. Pictures of the event can be seen here.

Chico Rotary Donates $2,400 to the Nico Project
The Chico Rotarians have donated $2,400 to the Nico Project. This donation was unsolicited and unexpected. The Chico Rotary is just another example of Chicoans getting involved and helping their community. Thanks a'bunch Rotarians.

Umpqua Bank Provides Charitable Grant of $1,500
Tim Jones of Umpqua Bank handed over a $1,500 charitable grant for the Nico Project. KNVN channel 24 was on hand to film the event. We'd like to thank the wonderful people at Umpqua Bank for stepping up and doing something great in Nico's memory. It's companies like Umpqua Bank that make Chico a great place to live.

Wildcats Girls Softball Team Donates Trophy Money to Nico Project.
A great group of young ladies decided to forgo trophies after their softball season and instead donate the money to the Nico Project. We'd like to thank the players...

Players (age): Gillian Andes(8), Sami Brinkley(10), Sydney Cambra(10), Stephanie Forbis(10), Isabella Henderson(9),Katie Knoch(8), Kaylynn Lockard(10), Annika Powell(9), Haley Rollag(8), Sophia Rogers-Davidson(8), Brooke Rosenow(8), Blayne Sanders(9), Taylor Soult(10).

And the adult staff...Brett Cambra, Randy Rollag, Tim Lockard, Dani Brinkley, Linda Rogers.

Keep it up girls, with community spirit like you've shown Chico has a lot to look forward to in it's young people.

The Great Spaghetti Feed Raises $13,000
Friends and family of the Cardozas held a spaghetti feed and silent auction to benefit the Nico Cardoza Memorial Project. The event sold out (300 tickets) and may have been the social event of the year in Ripon, CA (Tony's home town). Specal thanks go out to organizers Sharmane, Bev, Chic, and Angela. Great job!

Jake Early Supports Nico Project
Local artist Jake Early, creator of the popular Chico series of screen prints, is lending his support to the Nico Project. Jake is allowing his Caper Acres (see here) screen print to be used on a fundraising T-shirt. Jake's work is classic Chico, and his support and artwork are a perfect fit for the Nico Project. T-shirts are $20, we have a large number of sizes. Please call us at 891-8045 for more information.

Linda Brobst "Riding For Nico" Raises $1,700
Friend of the family and aavid Mountain Biker Linda Brobst rode the Lemurian Shasta Classic Mountain Bike Race on Saturday, April 29, 2006, in Whisekytown, CA for the Nico Project. Linda collected sponsorship money from friends and donated all of it to the Nico Project. Great job Linda!

Message Forum
The message forum continues to be a means that we organize our efforts. These efforts are kept public so friends, family, and contributors can see the work we are doing. An events calendar is also included on the forum and will describe upcoming events.