by Kevin Cody
Approximately 100 people attended the 20th anniversary celebration of the MBX Foundation last month on the Shade Hotel patio.
Dress was casual. Appetizers were passed, but dinner didn’t follow. “Open bar, ‘til the tab runs out,” the bartender told guests.
The evening’s honoree was MBX founder Gary Wayland, though his name did not appear on the invitation.
Outgoing MBX president Ed McKeegan welcomed the casually attired guests, seated on folding chairs, with a recounting of the foundation’s contributions to the Manhattan Beach Unified School District.
$1 million for the Waller Stadium synthetic football field turf.
$500,000 for the Waller Stadium track.
$130,000 for Fisher Gym improvements.
$800,000 for sports equipment and sports facility improvements.
$2 million for synthetic turf at the multi purpose West Field.
When founded in 2003, MBX was called the Manhattan Beach Athletic Foundation. In 2009, it changed its name, McKeegan noted, to reflect having expanded its scope from sports to academic scholarships, arts grants, administering the MBUSD summer, and afterschool programs, and managing the district’s facility rentals.
Notably absent from McKeegan’s remarks was mention of the evening’s honoree, except to note, “MBX was founded in May 2003 by Gary Wayland.”
After his talk, McKeegan appeared taken aback when asked why he said so little about the evening’s honoree.
“It was all Gary,” he answered.
To the majority of attendees, among them school board members, and current and former district administrators, that fact was self-evident. As was knowledge that Wayland abhors attention.
West Field was to be renamed Wayland Field until Wayland tabled the idea, McKeegan said.
Wayland was not so attention-adverse that he demurred when called to the stage. But his remarks were brief. He told one anecdote about having to explain to the athletic foundation board why it would be administering the district’s summer school. He thanked foundation director Heather Interian and her staff, and the school district administrators. Then he apologized for his brevity by noting, “I’m allergic to crowds of more than three.”
Before he could leave the stage, McKeegan presented Wayland with a crystal trophy with his name etched on it. It was six inches tall. “It’s small,” McKeegan explained, “because Gary wouldn’t approve of anything big.”
Consistent with its founder’s persona, MBX keeps a low profile, especially in contrast to its sister MBUSD fundraiser, the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation.
MBEF celebrated its 40th anniversary two months ago with the unveiling of a 10-foot by 40-foot mural in Metlox Plaza, titled “Seeds of Knowledge.” Donors’ names are scattered across the mural, like seeds in a word bubble. The sizes of the donors’ seeds are relative to the sizes of their donations.
MBEF’s signature event is Manhattan’s social highlight of the year, the annual Manhattan Beach Wine Auction, held at the Manhattan Beach Country Club.
MBX doesn’t have a signature event.
MBX trails MBEF in fundraising, but not significantly considering their respective ages.
MBEF reported $6.1 million in gross receipts in 2019, the last year its tax report is available on the charity tracking website GuideStar. And $2.5 million to its endowment fund in 2021, according to Guidestar.
MBX reported $4.7 million in gross receipts in 2020, according to its last tax report on GuideStar.
MBEF has contributed approximately $100 million to MBUSD over its 40 years.
“MBX does not compete for donated dollars. We leave those opportunities to our SCOs (School Connected Organizations), the district, and MBEF,” McKeegan emphasized in his welcoming remarks.
The approximately 50 SCOs (booster clubs) have raised $31 million since MBX began managing their books in 2013, McKeegan said. MBX’s management of the summer school program has raised approximately $6 million for the school district since 2004. And its after schools program has raised approximately $1.6 for the district since 2005.
Wayland founded MBX one year after he left MBEF, where he served as its treasurer for five years.
A decade earlier, he and partner Michael Vukadinovich opened their CPA practice in a brown, single story, stucco building on a commercial stretch of Aviation Boulevard in Hermosa Beach.
Wayland and his wife April, a musician and author, moved to Manhattan Beach from Brentwood in 1993 to shorten his work commute. The couple’s son Jeff became the Mira Costa High School band leader, and is now an emergency room doctor in Boston.
During his final year as MBEF treasurer, Wayland also served on the oversight committee for Hermosa Beach’s newly passed, $13 school million bond. During this period, Manhattan Beach’s school superintendent resigned following his district’s mishandling of its $70 million bond measure, approved by voters in 2000.
Wayland sent his Hermosa oversight committee news clippings of the Manhattan bond debacle with a note that read, “Not on my watch.”
During an interview following the 20th anniversary celebration, Wayland recalled founding MBX with assistance from attorney Kent Burton, and inaugural board members Judge Brian Curry, and Manhattan Beach mother of seven Jan Pipkin.
“When I left the Education Foundation, I thought there was room for ‘directed’ donations, especially in the athletics area. I was used to the college model,” he said.
At the time MBEF donations were without restrictions, though MBEF now accepts “directed” donations, MBEF executive Director Hillary Mahan said this week.
“Our first big project, in 2005, was the Mira Costa track. We obtained a ‘directed’ grant from the California Recycling Board, on the condition we use recycled California tires,” Wayland said.
“That became our model. Specific grants for specific projects. In 2007 we beat the bushes for a synthetic football field, and raised $1 million.”
MBX’s low profile approach to high profile projects attracted attention.
“Early on, the boy’s basketball booster club asked our help with bookkeeping. This was well before 2013, when the State mandated how booster club funds are to be accounted for. When the State mandates were issued, the district asked MBX to coordinate all of the SCOs,” he said.
(A consequence of the State mandate was booster clubs throughout the state changed their bylaws, replacing the word “fee,” which implied pay-to-play, to “donation.”)
MBX’s coordination solved a thorny problem for coaches.
Previously, Wayland said, coaches were responsible for asking their players’ parents for donations.
“That put the coaches in an uncomfortable position. We’ve taken that ‘ask’ off their table. Now, coaches don’t know who donates. If the volleyball team goes to Hawaii, all the kids go, whether or not their parents donated to the team,” Wayland said.
One year after MBX was founded, it assumed responsibility for the district’s summer school.
“The district came to us because the State had cut off summer school funds. ‘We can’t charge for summer school, but you can,’” Wayland recalled district administrators telling him.
“The teachers union was adamant that what we were doing was illegal. Suits were filed, but the State Department of Education said it was okay,” Wayland said.
The teacher’s union contended students were ducking school year classes because summer school grading was easier, which MBX denied.
“The district has put a lot of trust in MBX, and we’ve earned it. Every dollar received by MBX, including from the summer school and the facility rentals, has built something,” he said.
Since resigning from the MBX board, Wayland has limited his MBX responsibilities to managing rentals of the district’s facilities, including Waller Stadium, the new Fisher Gym, and the newly refurbished West Field.
He no longer has an MBX title, he noted, before disclosing at least a hint of ego.
“I wouldn’t mind being called chancellor,” he said. ER
