Dana Point, California – DANA POINT HARBOR CELEBRATES THE 38TH ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF WHALES
What are dogs doing at a Whale Festival you ask? Well, some special soccer playing dogs are participants of Ocean Awareness Day on Saturday, March 14, 2009 from 11am-4pm at Baby Beach. As we celebrate the migration of the gray whale at our local shores, we are also reaching out to the community to let them know who is doing what to help our ocean environment. The vision for Ocean Awareness Day is to bring the many different and diverse City, County, State, public and non-profit groups together in a beautiful location to reach out to the community to educate and make aware the many different issues our oceans and its environment face and what they are doing to protect it. The groups make their booths interactive so it is a fun environment to learn in. It is a unique event and some of the attendees are Pacific Marine Mammal Center, NOAA Fisheries, City of Dana Point & County of Orange, South Coast Water District, Earth/Ocean Society, US Coastguard Auxiliary, Ocean Defenders Alliance, Ocean Academy and many others. The Soccer Collies are making their second appearance to help educate kids about the importance of cleaning up after their dogs and the effect it has on water quality. The Soccer Collies will show off their fantastic soccer skills of dribbling, catching the soccer ball and scoring goals, to the delight of all who attend. Musical entertainment will be provided by Orange County’s own surfband “The MaiTais”.
New to the event this year is a Children’s Community Art Project “Tails of Majestic Migration”. A 5ft. tall Sculpted Whale Tail by artist Eric Danton will be the featured art piece of the project. Children will design their own paper whale tail and then write down their “whale tale” or pledge to protect the Ocean. Artist Aileen May will help guide the children with the decorating of the tail with beautiful mosaic tiles. The event is located at Baby Beach at the OC Sailing & Events Center, 34451 Ensenada Place, Dana Point, CA. The event and parking is FREE.
SOCCER COLLIE INFO:
Mark Lukas is the owner of these fantastic soccer playing collies. Five years ago he lost his son, Zack in a tragic accident. To help his family during the grieving process, he bought a border collie that he names Ms.Z, after his son, Zack. Zak’s passion was soccer, and he and his dad attended a soccer match that featured a soccer playing dog. He decided that his mission would be to teach Ms.Z to play soccer. He began to work with Ms.Z and was thrilled to find that Ms.Z LOVED to play soccer and was actually better than most children, not to mention adults at dribbling the ball, catching the ball with her paws and mouth and scoring goals. Ms.Z has now been joined by additional teammates, Sweeper, Keeper and Beck (after Beckham). Beck and Sweeper made a love match and last year six additional soccer puppies joined the team! Mark has recently moved to So Cal from Florida where the Soccer Collies were well known. They are now in the OC looking for fame and fortune and a few good soccer balls! Contact Mark Lukas at (714) 501-4074 or marklukas@soccercollies.com www.soccercollies.com.
