FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. – Orange County Water District's (OCWD) Groundwater Guardian Team along with Disneyland Resort and the National Water Research Institute will present the nation’s largest Children’s Water Education Festival on April 4 and 5, 2006, at Hidden Valley Park in Irvine.  The event is made possible by community sponsors, presenters and volunteers throughout Orange County and Southern California.  Everyone can help educate our children in some way. How can you help?

• Volunteer to staff an activity booth, assist with registration or help provide direction around the facility;
• Sponsor our festival as your organization will receive prominent recognition for your contribution;
• Donate products, including plastic cups, straws, napkins, ice cream, squirt guns, and many other items needed to perform hands-on learning activities*;
• Fund a bus for a school’s transportation to the event or lunches for the volunteers*;

*donations are made through a 501 c 3 organization the National Water Research Institute. 

This is year’s festival will be the tenth year of educating Orange County’s 3rd-, 4th- and 5^th-graders about water. The festival is a fun, environmental education program designed to teach elementary school children about the interdependence of water, soil, plants, trees, animals and humans.  With more than 70 interactive and fun-filled activities, the festival is the largest of its kind. The 2005 festival brought more than 6,000 Orange County students from 21 cities. This year nearly 6,000 students and teachers have already registered to attend.

Volunteers are needed during the two-day festival to help with a range of activities, from staffing one of the event’s 70 interactive booths to helping direct classes to their next activity.  To participate in the event as a volunteer, contact Patricia Kreamer at (714) 848-6841 or by email at pkreamer.waterfestival@verizon.net.

Public and private community support of the event is essential to ensure its continued success.  Without these contributions, many Orange County students would not be able to participate in the event. In-kind donations are extremely helpful as well.  Festival sponsors receive recognition in various ways including the festival’s program and entrance banner.  All contributions are made through the National Water Research Institute and are tax deductible.  For more information, please contact Rebecca Long at  (714) 378-3362 or click here. 

Orange County Water District (OCWD) manages the large groundwater basin that underlies North-Central Orange County that provides most of the water for 2.3 million citizens. OCWD is committed to constantly improving Orange County’s groundwater quality and reliability in an environmentally friendly manner. With years of prudent planning and careful investment, OCWD has doubled the yield of the groundwater basin. Recently, the basin, larger that the largest reservoir in Southern California, sustained the County through a five-year drought. OCWD has also spent millions of dollar on studies by outside experts to ensure the quality of our groundwater. We want to be your trusted source for water quality. We will continue to plan and invest in ways to get more water into and out of the basin. OCWD is a special district, separate from the County of Orange, that supplies to residents in the cities of Anaheim, Buena Park, Cypress, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Irvine, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Newport Beach, Orange, Placentia, Santa Ana, Seal Beach, Stanton, Tustin, Villa Park, Westminster and Yorba Linda.