MS Green Expo
The Green Mississippi Expo is designed to help inform and educate Gulf Coast residents on ways to help the environment, save energy and promote environmental sustainability. The Expo will feature products, techniques and ideas that can be put to use in existing homes and gardens or in the renovation/rebuilding process.
For more info, visit www.gogreengc.com
Mardi Gras Bed Race
The Mardi Gras Bed Race is an exciting new way to celebrate the carnival season on the Gulf Coast. The race, which begins in downtown Biloxi, involves a decorated bed on wheels, a pajama-clothed rider and four pushers. Beds will be sponsored and manned by local businesses and will compete for many different prizes and awards. Festivities surrounding the Bed Race will include a pajama ball and crawfish boil. A portion of all proceeds will go to benefit the Gulf Coast Chapter of the Salvation Army.
For more info, visit www.mardigrasbedrace.com
Family Fair
The 17th Annual Coliseum Country-Cajun Crawfish Festival in April presents the 3rd Annual Family Fair 2009 sponsored by Wal-Mart. Admission to the Family Fair is free with paid admission to the festival. The event will include booths from companies like yours who can offer displays, demonstrations, sampling, couponing, recruitment and more.
The attendance for the 2008 Family Fair was approximately 25,000. We anticipate, with the inclusion of SpongeBob Squarepants, Dora the Explorer and Diego, 2009 will bring in over 30,000. Another great reason to participate is that the $500 booth fee and sponsorship fees are considered a tax deductible donation to the Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse, which serves to protect children in all of South Mississippi. The charity was selected by your local Wal-Mart locations and in addition, one dollar from each festival ticket sold during the first weekend will go the charity as well!
For more info, visit www.mscoastcoliseum.com and www.mscpca.com
Red Dress Day
The Annual Red Dress Day brings out the inner beauty of some of Wal-Mart’s more rugged managers in market 423. In an effort to raise money for the American Heart Association male managers from Wal-Marts all along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, as well as stores as far north as Hattiesburg, are putting on their best red dresses redefining what it means to drag at work. Posing for pictures, dancing to songs that do not apply to them, such as “Pretty Woman”, and generally surprising customers all over the store, these managers are going all out to make a difference for the American Heart Association.
For more info the American Heart Association, visit www.americanheart.org
Christmas on the Coast
Christmas, it’s a magical time of year, especially on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where all the traditional Yule tide activities come with a special brand of southern beach front pizzazz. This year the fun is even more extravagant as the Demp Group introduces the first annual Christmas on the Coast. This breathtaking display of lights and decorations is one of the largest in the nation, stretching for eighty-nine miles of the beautiful golden Highway 90 of Mississippi, including twenty-six miles of gorgeous beaches and lively casinos.
The festivities will begin early on November 28th and continue until December 31st providing a month long window of opportunity for viewers, both local and visiting, to enjoy this magnificent Christmas event. Come and join the fun this holiday season with the Demp Group and the first of what is destined to become a Christmas tradition on the coast. Bring the family and enjoy the 2009 Christmas on the Coast.
Sea Wolves Going Blue
When people think about the Mississippi Gulf Coast they don’t typically conjure up images of frigid ice rinks or of people skating on anything other than concrete. Another thing people don’t normally associate with Mississippi’s beautiful coast line is child abuse. On October 24th the Mississippi Sea Wolves organization is planning on changing that. No one should worry, however. The team hasn’t taken one too many shots to the helmet or spent too much time in the penalty box. This year, the Mississippi Sea Wolves Professional Hockey Club has decided to use the 2008 hockey season as a way to help promote awareness of child abuse around the Gulf Coast and the nation.
Donating their time and efforts to more than winning hockey games is nothing new to the Sea Wolves organization. In the thirteen years they have called Mississippi home, the team has supported many charitable
organizations. In recent years, the organization has given more than 10,000 hours of community service, raised over $30,000 for non-profit organizations, and donated more than $40,000 worth of team merchandise to local causes. In 2007 the team made their biggest contribution yet when they announced the formation of The Sea Wolves Foundation, a program designed to meet the educational, social, health and cultural needs of the local community by offering unique resources and programs, as well as financial support to local charitable organizations.
As the 2008 season approaches, the Sea Wolves are focusing on a number of new goals; promoting the awareness and prevention of child abuse along the Gulf Coast and beating the Charlotte Checkers in the home opener on October, 24th. For the Sea Wolves, it truly is about more than just winning hockey games. “We feel a responsibility to do our part to support the South Mississippi community,” said Sea Wolves president Bill Yates. “Whether it is monetarily or from a volunteer standpoint, we should all make an effort to support our neighbors and friends in need.”
The Sea Wolves have already planned several events to help support Go Blue, the Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse’s awareness campaign that will last throughout the entire month of April, 2009. In addition to sporting blue ribbons on their jersey throughout the 2008-09 season in support of Go Blue, the Sea Wolves will be giving away posters sponsoring the program to the first 3,000 people to come through the Mississippi Coast Coliseum doors at five selected home games during the year. Coupons that will give fans $2.00 off tickets to Sea Wolves games will also be given out all season long at participating Gulf Coast stores, including all area Wal-Marts. Wrapping up the year, the Sea Wolves and the CPCA will be sponsoring a “Ladies Night Out” on April 16th at the Imperial Palace Casino and Resort Spa. Along with other activities, the evening will include an auction of Sea Wolves’ memorabilia with all of the proceeds supporting the efforts of Go Blue.
Red Fish Jubilee
The Mississippi Gulf Coast is always bustling with activity. From Pascagoula to Waveland, the coast can never be accused of having a lack of events to enjoy or festivals to attend. Whether it be celebrating an annual holiday, participating in a local businesses’ latest endeavour, or being a part of a charitable cause, the residents of south Mississippi always find a way to get the most out of life on the Gulf. In 2008, the Red Fish Cup, an annual ESPN event, became a part of that festive tradition.
For two days, October 10th through the 12th, ESPN’s popular wrangling tournament settled in D’Iberville for the contest’s national finals. ESPN will return to the area in 2009 for the next installment of red fish tournaments and the first appearance of the Red Fish Jubilee, presented by Demp Group. The festivities will include more than just fishing. In addition to the red fish wrangling rodeo, the jubilee will include bands, games, prizes, local and national vendors, and an overall family friendly celebration that everyone can enjoy.
The Red Fish Cup is a tournament that was begun by anglers dedicated to redfish enthusiasts from coast to coast and beyond. The tournament is now including the Mississippi Gulf Coast as a host in their quest to provide, not only the best redfish tournament organization, but also the very best information, education and conservation forum for the sport. The Red Fish Cup began in June of 2003, with the inaugural Oh Boy! Oberto Redfish Cup event in Port Aransas, Texas. This was the tournament’s first of four televised events in 2003, and got the event off and running by providing the information and education that people who enjoy the sport were hungry for. Millions of people watched as the best inshore anglers in the world began teaching a national audience this very specialized sport. The Red Fish Cup has now completed the second and third seasons of the Oh Boy! Oberto Redfish Cup which, as anticipated, has proven to take all of the focus in the redfishing world, while becoming recognized as the elite tournament trail.
With such a rich tradition, the 2009 Red Fish Jubilee is sure to be a wonderful addition to the fishing extravaganza. Come and join the fun in 2009 with Demp Group, ESPN and the first Mississippi Gulf Coast Red Fish Jubilee.
