This Saturday, local non-profit Leap will host their 26th annual Sandcastle Contest on Ocean Beach.
It is Northern California’s largest sandcastle building event, and the competition is fierce between teams of architects, engineers, contractors, designers and local elementary school students.
This year’s theme, “Stories in the Sand: Classic Children’s Books,†will inspire an array of one-of-a-kind creations featuring elaborate castles, formidable monsters, and gargantuan monuments in approximately twenty-five, 400-square-foot plots.
Leap will also debut a new feature at the 2009 contest: a community sandcastle-building area where bystanders can team up with volunteers and one of Leap’s teaching architects to try their hand at designing their own sand structure. So if you have visions of sandy greatness, seize the moment!
This mission of Leap…imagination in learning is to stimulate imagination and creativity in Bay Area children by bringing visual and performing artists and architects into the classroom for extended residencies. Leap artists and architects team with teachers to design participatory projects that augment and amplify the school’s curriculum.
Proceeds from the Sandcastle contest, gathered from sponsors and team fundraising, will go back into Leap’s programs, which serve over 6,500 children in the Bay Area.
The Sandcastle Contest takes place this Saturday from 10am to 4pm on Ocean Beach, near the intersection of Balboa and the Great Highway.
Sarah B.
