The unit is three to five firms
Leap's 44th Annual Sandcastle Classic runs Saturday 24 October 2026 at Ocean Beach at Balboa Street in San Francisco. The organiser publishes the team structure on its participate page. A Sandcastle team carries three to five companies, and each team partners with one local elementary school.
The FAQ names the sectors that register: architecture, engineering, design, construction and technology companies. The participate page groups the same set as AEC, design and technology. The event info page adds contractors and corporations to the list.
One school sits on every team
The partner school is part of the registered unit. Company representatives run design thinking sessions with the partner school's students, and the participate page lists classroom sessions in which company staff teach architecture, engineering and design concepts to an elementary school age audience.
The organiser counts more than 25 local schools and 500 donating companies and advertisers in the participating set. The FAQ reads the funded reach as 8,500 Bay Area students across 30 schools each year. The sitewide boilerplate reads over 8,000 students in more than 30 elementary schools.
The published money terms
A team submits a $500 registration fee and sets a fundraising goal of at least $5,000. The participate page states that 100 percent of the funds raised through Leap's Sandcastle Classic go toward arts education for students in the Bay Area.
Two figures frame the season. The 2026 goal is $300,000, and the FAQ states that the Classic raises 30 percent of the costs required to deliver Leap's arts education programs. The event info page names the highest grossing team in the event's history at $60,000.
The team cap is published. The organiser accepts a maximum of 30 teams for 2026, and the event info page tells teams to sign up early for a slot.
What the season gives the firm
The tier carries pre-event and post-event access. The participate page describes networking with other companies in the AEC, design and technology industries at those events, and company representatives coordinate with other Bay Area firms on the build itself.
Promotion terms run with the registration. A company link goes up on the Sandcastle site, and company logos can be added to team T-shirts and site signs. Competition winners get recognition in Leap's email blasts and social media posts.
Coaching sits inside the tier. The participate page names trainings, resources and one-on-one coaching sessions that prepare teams for the fundraising goal and for the partner school. Teams earn participation points through the season and compete for awards beyond the castle build.
Registration clocks
Team registration closed on 15 August 2026. Registration for individual participants runs through 15 October 2026, and those participants build in the Community Castle. The public can drop in at Ocean Beach on 24 October without registering, and the event info page states the Classic is free to the public to attend.
Who sits on the 2026 committee
The organiser publishes its 2026 committee by name and firm: Andy Pippin of LPA Design Studios, Christina Rosenberger of Rider Levett Bucknall, Jacqueline Haudek Marquez of Leap, Jacqueline Jimenez of Truly Loved Events, Julie Hagelshaw of IMEG Corp., Kenta Kamei of Smithgroup, Natalie Raya of Garland Co. and Ryan Lee of Woods Bagot.
The organiser is mid-integration
Leap Arts and Youth Art Exchange state they are coming together as one organisation. Youth Art Exchange assumes leadership of Leap Arts and brings its programs, teaching artists, staff and community partnerships into the combined body. Raffaella Falchi Macias, Executive Director of Youth Art Exchange, will lead it. The event info page carries that message to sponsors, teams and partners, and it states that Sandcastle teams continue with the same event team through the transition.
Terms for a group that asks
Entry is free to the public, and no gate price or ticket tier appears on the landing page, the event info pages, the schedule, the FAQ, the theme page, the participate page or the events calendar.
The organiser publishes no shuttle plan, no coach drop-off point and no event parking term for 24 October 2026. It publishes no partner property, room block, group rate or cut-off date for the date either.
Three contact points sit on the site. Leap answers questions at sandcastle@leaparts.org and (415) 512-1899. The published hashtags are #LeapArts and #SandcastleClassic.