Park Advocates from San Diego’s Outdoor Outreach
CSPF’s 14th Annual Park Advocacy Day will be held on Tuesday, May 3 2016 in Sacramento. We strongly encourage all members of SPAN to join us at this important event and help us send a strong message of support for state parks to policymakers at the Capitol. Registration will open in December.
Park Advocacy Day 2015
Tuesday, May 5 2015 marked another successful Park Advocacy Day at the Capitol hosted by California State Parks Foundation. This year, over 160 park advocates from all over the state joined together for a day of advocacy and lobbying on behalf of state parks.
Park Advocacy Day 2015 kicked off at the historic Elks Tower Ballroom in downtown Sacramento with a general session which included remarks by CSPF President Elizabeth Goldstein and a detailed presentation of this year’s talking points by CSPF Vice-President of Government Affairs, Traci Verardo-Torres. Participants also heard from Assemblymember Richard Gordon (D-Menlo Park) and Assemblymember Marc Levine (D-San Rafael).
From 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. CSPF also hosted an expo on the North Lawn of the State Capitol. This year’s expo theme was “California’s State Parks are Great Places for You and Me”. Over 20 organizations from throughout California hosted booths at the expo, showcasing innovative projects taking place at state parks and helping to raise awareness to the Capitol Community of the many reasons why California’s 279 state parks need to be protected, well-maintained and accessible to the public. Projects showcased by expo partners included trail stewardship, water sampling, recycling, theater, animals, historic dress, fire research, documentary, marine life, and more.
Also joining CSPF at the expo were 4th grade students from Healdsburg Charter School, who helped CSPF deliver over 6,700 petitions to Governor Brown.
After the expo, participants headed into the State Capitol, where they spent the majority of the afternoon meeting with legislators and lobbying in support of legislation impacting state parks. In total, participants met with over 120 policymakers. You can learn more about the bills lobbied on at Park Advocacy Day 2015 here.
At the end of the day, participants, legislators and others from the Capitol Community gathered back at the Elks Tower Ballroom for a reception honoring CSPF’s 2015 Legacy Award recipients, Assemblymember Kristin Olsen (R-Modesto) and Assemblymember Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood). (To learn more about this year’s honorees, please read our press release)
Thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s event!
