Friends of the Dunes Holds 24th Annual Sand Sculpture Festival

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Samoa, Ca. (KIEM) — Friends of the Dunes held their 24th annual Sand Sculpture Festival down at the Samoa Drag Strip. We show you what the festival is all about and what really goes into making those sculptures.

Grab your buckets and shovels, and head to the beach for this year’s Sand Sculpture Festival. Visitors can check out what people are building and enjoy the beautiful North Coast.

“This is a family friendly event that brings people out to the coast to support coastal conservation and be creative,” friends of the dunes executive director, Mike Cipra, said.

Teams competed against each other to see who could make the best sculpture, but constructing them isn’t easy work.

“It’s a lot of manual labor. A few hours of just getting out here early, shoveling some sand, getting a lot of water from the ocean and bringing it up here,” one sculpting team member Jason Caria said.

The event is a lot of fun for everyone in the community, but Friends of the Dunes really want people to learn about and appreciate the coastal areas in Humboldt County.

“It’s part of our commitment to the community to make sure that people have both coastal access and education about some of the amazing things in our coastal dunes,” Cipra said.

One team from the Northcoast Environmental Center used their sculpture to try and spread a message of their own.

“The title of our sculpture is Lend a Hand, or Eight. We’re trying spread awareness to Humboldt County for ending single use plastics,” Casey Cruikshank, the coastal programs coordinator for Northcoast Environmental Center explained.  

At the end of the day, the festival is all about bringing people in the community together and advocating for environmental conservation.

According to Cipra, “it’s a way of connecting people with that mission of education, stewardship of our coastal environments and inspiring the next generation.”

The festival was also a fundraiser. All proceeds made today will go towards free education and stewardship programs put together by Friends of the Dunes.

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