Los Angeles, CA (March 20, 2007)— For the first time in history, the City of Irvine will be putting up 50 banners on Culver Drive between the I-5 and 405 freeways from March 16 until the day after the yearly “Sizdeh-bedar” gathering at Mason Park on April 2.

The success of this Norooz on Culver Banner Project was the result of the hard work of a group of Iranian-Americans in Orange County. The idea was initially brought up to Irvine's Mayor Beth Krom in December 2006 by local Iranian artist and OCPC Magazine publisher, Saeed Danosian. Through teamwork with community activist Mariam Khosravani, an Irvine City Commissioner; the Network of Iranian American Professionals of Orange County (NIPOC); along with the funding that was kindly provided by the newly formed PARSA Community Foundation; this project came to life and will be displayed for the first time in the City's history.

Saeed Danosian says, “We hope to spread these banners to a number of major cities in Orange County and Los Angeles by next year's Norooz celebration. Combining the American and Iranian cultures is a beautiful thing.”

The banners were created by Danosian's Irvine-based Designer Lab Studio, who also designed KOCE's Butterfly Project as well as the City of Mission Viejo Library's banner project. One of the two banners shows the Haft Seen, the traditional Norooz table setting, and the other states three ancient Persian values: Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds.

Aside from the City of Irvine, Danosian also created similar Norooz banners which will be hung at Goldenwest College's campus. This project was made possible with the help of Farzaneh Faraz, Ph.D, Professor of Peace Studies at Goldenwest. These banners will be displayed starting March 15th with a similar design as the Culver banners with the addition of the phrase: "Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds is Peace."

A full story will appear in the April issue of OCPC Magazine and online at www.ocpcmagazine.com.

-30-

www.ocpcmagazine.com

Media contact is MLC PR: Mona Loring
contact@monaloring.com
805-231-3182

This release was published on openPR.