The Story of Water Festival 2000

The Festival Guides stood expectantly at the Albuquerque Convention Center entrance, each one holding a large sign with the name of a school and teacher on it. Then school buses began to roll up and as the students stepped off the buses, they were welcomed by the Water Wizard. They then joined their Guide and marched inside. Children’s Water Festival 2000 had begun ! !

The area's second Children's Water Festival was held on Thursday and Friday, November 2 and 3 at the Albuquerque Convention Center. Each day, more than 450 4th grade students from schools in Los Lunas, Rio Rancho and Albuquerque gathered to celebrate water.

The students spent the day participating in fun, hands-on learning activities about water science, history, geography, drama and our water future. Students created a mini-river, purified water from the Rio Grande and built aquifers from edible ingredients. They used a computer model to make projections of water use into the future and a groundwater model to "see" how water moves underground. They made pizzas from garbage and analyzed water samples; they pretended to be algae, fish and raptors to understand how toxins can travel through the food chain. They conversed with Dorothy and the Xeric City Scarecrow about saving water and tested their water knowledge in lively games of Water Jeopardy and Dripial Pursuit.

But why a Water Festival? According to Susan Gorman, Festival Coordinator, "We learned during this long, dry summer how difficult it is to make decisions about allocating our scarce water resources. Today’s 4th grade students will be the decision makers of the future and they will be making some very difficult choices. Perhaps the students who came to this event will think of the great ideas that ensure us a sustainable water supply."

Jean Arya, the Water Wizard who knows all there is to know about water, reported that teachers loved the activities. "They were impressed by the amount of education hidden in the fun activities. One teacher said she would give anything to see the level of learning continue throughout the ordinary classroom time."

The Water Festival Lead Donors included New Mexico Environment Department, Surface Water Quality Bureau; US Environmental Protection Agency, Region 6; US Bureau of Reclamation; and the City of Albuquerque, Public Works / Water Resources. More than three dozen other organizations (see list below)  and many individuals donated time, resources and money to make the Water Festival possible.

Water Festival 2001 will be held on November 8 & 9, 2001, when it all starts again, but with 1000 new kids.

To see some pictures of what happened at Water Festival 2000, click here.

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Return to the Children's Water Festival Page

Return to the Children's Water Festival Page