OCWD Board of Directors
President
Cathy Green
First Vice President
Denis R. Bilodeau, P.E.
Second Vice President
Philip L. Anthony
Jordan Brandman
Shawn Dewane
Jan M. Flory, ESQ.
Dina L. Nguyen, ESQ.
Roman Reyna
Stephen R. Sheldon
Roger C. Yoh, P.E.
General Manager
Michael R. Markus
P.E., D.WRE.




19th Annual Children's
Water Education Festival a
Great Success!
The 19th annual Children's Water Education Festival was a success! Nearly 7,000 third, fourth and fifth grade Orange County students attended the free field trip to learn about water and the environment; curriculum corresponded to California Science Standards.

The Orange County Water District's Groundwater Guardian Team, which includes OCWD, Disneyland Resort and the National Water Research Institute (NWRI), hosted the event on March 25 and 26, 2015 at the University of California, Irvine (UCI).

The drought and the need to practice lifelong water-use efficiency were primary topics as California is entering its fourth year of a serious drought. OCWD and its partners invested in teaching youth how to prepare for and respond to these conditions. In addition, the students learned about the Orange County Groundwater Basin, local wildlife and conservancy, water quality, and the Santa Ana Watershed.

Since its inception, the Festival has empowered more than 110,000 Orange County students to protect the environment, while also exposing them to career opportunities in environmental and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields.

This important educational event continues to endure thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, especially event title sponsor Used Oil Recycling. In addition to monetary and in-kind donations, conducting a festival of this size requires more than 500 volunteers, staff and presenters. We thank the many organizations and individuals who came together and took the time to invest in the environmental education of our youth. A very special thank you to the Disneyland Resort and NWRI for their continued support of this event.

The Festival VIP Tour was hosted on the second day of the event and approximately 35 individuals representing sponsoring organizations and the offices of local elected officials attended. Shown with Director Denis Bilodeau (second from right) are, left to right, Scott Carpenter, Mark Lopez, and Natalie Wieckert from Supervisor Shawn Nelson's office.



OCWD Director Philip Anthony is shown here with a fourth grade class from Riverdale Elementary School in Garden Grove. There were 245 classes from 76 schools throughout Orange County that attended this year's Children's Water Education Festival.