Elephant Parade comes to the USA with an exhibit of 30 life-size painted baby elephant art sculptures 4 ft. high and 6 ft. long displayed at luxury hotels in Dana Point, California including the Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel, St. Regis Monarch Beach, DoubleTree Suites Doheny Beach and Marriott Laguna Cliffs.
Elephant Parade® was founded in 2006 by father and son team, Marc and Mike Spits. While on holiday in Thailand, Marc was introduced to a baby elephant named Mosha, who became the world’s first elephant to be fitted with a prosthetic limb after stepping on a stray landmine.
“We’ve created a social enterprise built on a successful model of art, business and charity resulting in very tangible, timely preservation efforts,” commented Mike Spits, founder of Elephant Parade®. “If we don’t take action now, the Asian Elephant could become extinct in just a few short decades.”
As the world’s largest support organization for elephant conservation, Elephant Parade® creates a unity between art, business and charity. Since 2006, more than $5 million has been raised for The Asian Elephant Foundation and approximately 8 million people worldwide have experienced the expositions.
Opening ceremonies for the Elephant Parade were last weekend from August 23 to August 25 when all the painted elephants were displayed on Doheny Beach in Dana Point.
Exhibition of the Elephant Parade begins today as the painted baby elephants are displayed at various locations around Dana Point, including several resort hotels, for the next ten weeks.
www.mydanapoint.com/elephants/map
Locations include Dana Point Harbor, Doheny State Beach, The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, The St. Regis Monarch Beach, Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa, DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Doheny Beach, and more!
http://www.mydanapoint.com/elephants
Elephant Parade Closing Ceremonies
If, like me, you missed the opening ceremony this past weekend, then you can schedule your time to visit the Elephant Parade November 10-16, 2013 when the elephants come back together from their various locations around Dana Point for one week on the bluffs of Dana Point at Lantern Bay Park.
Grand Auction – November 17 at 4pm
Elephant Parade concludes with a grand auction of select baby elephant life-size painted statues.
The international website for Elephant Parade provides links to exhibits around the world.
About Elephant Parade
Elephant Parade’s open air art exhibitions create worldwide attention, public awareness and support for the cause of elephant conservation: the Elephant Parade statues never go unnoticed by the wider public and mass media.
Elephant Parade is a social enterprise with a unique combination of art, business and conservation. The better the art, the higher the value of the Elephant Parade statue at auction: the life size baby elephant statues are exhibited in well-known cities and auctioned off at prestigious gala events. Smaller size hand painted limited edition replicas and other Elephant Parade merchandise are created based on the exposition elephants and sold at better stores around the world, in Elephant Parade Gallery Stores and via the Elephant Parade webshop.
The Asian Elephant Foundation auction/sell the statues and hence the foundation can support various projects. In addition to the sale of exhibition Elephant Parade elephants, 20% of Elephant Parade net profit is also distributed to The Asian Elephant Foundation. This generates a steady stream of ongoing income for the foundation.
The Asian Elephant Foundation distributes monies raised to various projects and organizations in the 13 Asian range countries, solely dedicated to the wellbeing and conservation of the Asian Elephant. In addition to this, The Asian Elephant Foundation plays an active role in awareness and educational projects around the world.
You can also visit Elephant Parade House if you happen to be in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Art, social awareness, wildlife protection and hotels come together in Elephant Parade USA at Dana Point, California this fall.
http://www.mydanapoint.com/elephants
Ric Garrido, writer and owner of Loyalty Traveler, shares news and views on hotels, hotel loyalty programs and vacation destinations for frequent guests.
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