Our sincere thanks to the generous sponsors and all of the amazing volunteers, presenters, partners, team members and planning committee members who worked tirelessly to make the 2013 Children’s Water Education Festival a great success. It takes a lot of dedicated people and companies/organizations to make this event happen. It could not have been done without all of them and their tremendous efforts.

The 17^th Annual Children's Water Education Festival (Festival), the largest of its kind in the United States, took take place March 27 - 28, 2013 at the University of California, Irvine.

This year approximately 7,000 third, fourth, and fifth grade students and their teachers attended the event, presented by the Orange County Water District, Disneyland Resort, National Water Research Institute and the Orange County Water District Groundwater Guardian Team.

The Festival presented a unique opportunity to educate students about local water issues and helped them understand how they can protect water supplies and their environment. Since its inception, more than 100,000 children from schools throughout Orange County have been able to experience the Festival and all it has to offer.

This year's festival hosted students from over 75 public, private and home schools from 21 Orange County cities. More than 65 California organizations generously devoted their time and resources to assist in educating budding young environmental stewards.

Throughout the Festival, participating organizations engaged the students through interactive educational presentations that are taught to California State Science Standards. Because of this, educators consistently rate the education value of the Festival very high.

The Festival is provided at no cost to Orange County schools. Hosting an event of this magnitude is made possible by many generous sponsors, presenters and dedicated volunteers. We are proud to work with such committed organizations and individuals each year.

It is more important than ever to teach our children that they can be responsible by making "blue" and "green" choices to help protect our precious water resources and environment now and for the future.

Registration for the 2014 Children's Water Education Festival will be posted in late August 2013. Stay tuned!