SandFest seeks non-profit partners
BY DAN PARKER SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

Proceeds from the annual SandFest celebration helped build the new Port Aransas Community Theater building, which was dedicated in January.

Now that the new theater is in place, SandFest is turning its attention toward helping other non-profit groups achieve their goals too.

SandFest, which draws tens of thousands of revelers to view the work of expert sand sculptors at the beach each year, has been under the umbrella of Port Aransas Community Theater throughout most of its 10year existence.

About two months ago, PACT's board of directors voted unanimously to spin off SandFest as a separate nonprofit organization.

"Our new theatre, dedicated in January 2006, became a reality because of support from SandFest and the businesses and friends of the theatre," PACT Board President Charlie Zahn said in a news release issued by PACT and SandFest organizers. "It is our hope that this action taken by the PACT board of directors will allow other non-profit groups to realize their goals."

SandFest started 10 years ago as a much smaller event, the brainchild of former Port Aransan Sharon Schafer. The event at first was under the umbrella of the non-profit Island Center for the Arts. After that first year, it moved under the umbrella of PACT.

Dee McElroy, who has been involved with SandFest for the past six years, said estimates showed that more than 100,000 people attended the free event during the course of its three-day stretch this year.

McElroy, SandFest's director, said a group of locals who have been involved in SandFest in the past is in the process of doing the paperwork to become an independent non-profit group and will appoint a board of directors.

PACT has agreed to keep SandFest under its umbrella until a new board is selected and paperwork is done to make the organization an official non-profit, McElroy said.

Each year, the SandFest board will team up with local non-profit organizations to put on event. In exchange for volunteers, the non-profits will receive profits from SandFest.

One of the first jobs for the new board will be to select three or four local non-profit groups for SandFest to join up with to put on the next festival, scheduled for March 3 to April 1, McElroy said.

SandFest raised almost $13,000 for PACT last year. Most was from sales of things like T-shirts and koozies and from income from what vendors paid for their spaces, plus other sources. Some of the income also was from donations.

SandFest goals will remain the same, according to the news release. The goals include holding a familyoriented festival featuring the art of sandsculpting; enjoying and protecting the beach environment; bringing world-class master sand sculptors from around the world; and keeping the event in the "shoulder season" to bring tourist dollars into the community during a typically slow time of year. Shoulder season is in the spring between the departure of Winter Texans and the beginning of the summer tourist season.

Anyone who wants to recommend a non-profit as a possible partner can email SandFest at texasSandFest@aol. com or write to Texas SandFest, P.O. Box 1076, Port Aransas, Tx., 78373; or call McElroy at 361-949-9531.

More information is available at www.portaransascommunitytheater. com and www.SandFest.com.