The Ventura Gem & Mineral Society (VGMS) is pleased to announce our “Diamond Jubilee” 60th Annual Gem, Mineral, Fossil & Jewelry Show taking place March 4 & 5 (10:00 AM–5:00 PM, Saturday; 10:00 AM–4:00 PM, Sunday) at the Ventura County Fairgrounds (10 W. Harbor Blvd, Ventura). The show is open to the public and admission is free, although the Fairgrounds charges a parking fee if using the Fairgrounds lot.
The Ventura Gem Show has been a fun family event for six decades with its focus on kids and education, gemstone cutting and jewelry-making, and rocks and fossils. At the show, we’ll announce the recipient of our $1,000 Scholarship Award, given annually to a local college student. Upon entering the show, kids are given a free polished stone at our Welcome Booth, where we also will have free rock samples and educational packets for teachers. At the Kids Booth, children can enjoy activities offering an assortment of rocky prizes. A nearby display offers info about the society’s two-room museum in Ojai, where teachers, home-schoolers, and other youth groups can arrange tours by appointment.
Here in California, there’s gold in them thar hills (try Lake Piru!), and you can learn how to pan for it at the Show. At one booth, expert prospectors will guide you through basic steps of gold panning, and you can purchase “pay dirt” to pan for real gold nuggets and flakes at the show or in your own backyard. In addition, this free show will feature some 50 displays of gems, minerals, fossils, and award-winning handcrafted jewelry. These include educational exhibits of fossils collected locally in and around Ventura County, as well as a display of our State Rock, Mineral, Fossil, and Gemstone (including a gold nugget, an Ice Age saber-tooth cat, and “Auggie”, the California State Dinosaur). Still other displays will show how stones collected locally have been crafted into jewelry. Demonstrations give visitors up-close looks at artists pursuing their crafts: gemstone cutting, silver work and jewelry making, beading, and other arts and crafts made from nature. Raffle prizes include fine jewelry, carved stones, a $100 bill, mineral and fossil specimens, and more. In addition, enjoy hourly silent auctions for rocks, minerals, and fossils, as well as a “Country Store” white elephant sale, a plant sale, and 15 dealers selling beads, opals, jade, gemstones, crystals, fossils, jewelry and jewelry-making supplies, and gift items.
VGMS was founded in 1944 to encourage interest in rocks, minerals, fossils, jewelry-making, and related areas through education, activities, and exhibitions such as this annual show, which is open to the community.
The Ventura Gem Show is the society’s major fund-raising event helping to underwrite educational activities, including the annual college scholarship and school visits and donations. For further details, call (805) 312-8467, email [email protected], or visit our web site at www.vgms.org.
The Ventura Gem & Mineral Society, Inc., is a nonprofit educational organization.
