friends of santa cruz state parks

Ninth Annual Kitayama Brothers Farms Gerbera Festival

June 5, 2018 by Seb Frey

Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks today announced the ninth annual Kitayama Brothers Farms Gerbera Festival, a benefit for Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks, will be held Saturday, June 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Kitayama Brothers Farms is located at 481 San Andreas Road in Watsonville (next to Sunset State Beach).

The Gerbera Festival, part of the Monterey Bay Greenhouse Growers Open House event, features free greenhouse tours, potted Gerbera plants and cut flowers for sale, flower arranging demonstrations, a farmers market, tacos, local beer and a PopUp ParkStore.

All proceeds from the Gerbera Festival benefit Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks.

The Gerbera Festival is part of the larger Monterey Bay Greenhouse Growers Open House, a daylong event on June 9 featuring guided tours of four Monterey Bay flower farms, including Kitayama Brothers. Go to www.montereybayfarmtours.org for more.

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Help Dust Off the Nisene Marks Fire Road

May 2, 2015 by Seb Frey

The Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks have announced that they are working with the Advocates for the Forest of Nisene Marks and California State Parks to help keep the dust off the Nisene Marks fire road.

Last year the Forest of Nisene Marks Advisory Committee, comprised of the three organizations, worked to fund the re-grading of the fire road from the entrance kiosk to the Steel Bridge, put down 500 tons of new base rock and coated the road with Dust Off. Dust Off is an environmentally safe dust suppression solution.

Maintaining the road this summer is projected to cost $14,500, which will be funded by the Advocates and Friends. The Advocates have embarked on a fundraising campaign to help fund the project. To date, the Advocates have raised $3,000. For more information or to make a donation, please visit www.advocatesfnm.org.

Seacliff Beach’s Virtual Classroom In the News

March 14, 2014 by Seb Frey

Seacliff Beach made front page news on the Santa Cruz Sentinel today, with a piece featuring a virtual classroom which is beamed to thousands of California students in grades K through 12 throughout the state. Local Aptos resident Vonnie Lemke was featured in the article, who is an interpreter for the Parks Online Resources for Teachers and Students Program (PORTS). The PORTS program is a distance learning educational program run by the State of California, but the program is funded by grants and contributions from the nonprofit Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks. Last week, the Seacliff program was one of six programs in the state honored with the Excellence in Museum award.

See article: Virtually a classroom: Seacliff program beams interactive video conference presentations throughout state