Batkid saves San Francisco, at a cost of $105,000
The cost of saving a city? For San Francisco, the tab for Batkid’s heroic day is coming in at $105,000.
Nearly 14,500 volunteers and adoring fans with signs turned out for 5-year-old Miles Scott, who has been battling lymphoblastic leukemia since he was 20 months old and wanted to spend the day as Batman.
The Make-A-Wish Foundation, which planned the festivities, expected a few hundred volunteers to show up. But when thousands more arrived, Mayor Ed Lee’s presentation of a chocolate key to the city was amped up with professional staging and big-screen TVs, bumping the cost to more than $105,000, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Police helping control the event were on regular duty and moved from one part of the city to another, Police Chief Greg Suhr told the paper. The same went for public works employees who helped clean up the aftermath.
The city will use income from the fees conventions pay for use of the Moscone Center, the same fund that pays for the $150,000 Fourth of July fireworks show, according to the Chronicle.
Meanwhile, Batkid and his family have reportedly been contacted by several talk shows.
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