Creek2Bay hits home for ILACSD staff

SONY DSCToday’s blog comes from Annie, our new Hotline Assistant! She joined the ILACSD team in February and now that she has settled into her new role, we’d like to officially introduce her to all of you! Read on to learn more about Annie and find out what made her first Creek to Bay Cleanup so meaningful.

First and foremost, I would like to introduce myself, my name is Anais “Annie” Rodriguez. I have been with the ILACSD team for a couple months as the newest Hotline Assistant. I assist hotline callers with their recycling questions and help maintain the County of San Diego’s Recycling and Household Hazardous Waste Database, www.WasteFreeSD.org. Before joining ILACSD, I graduated from Humboldt State University with a degree in Environmental Science with an emphasis in Environmental Policy.

As a new team member at ILACSD, the Creek to Bay Cleanup was a completely new experience for me. I was eager to spend time with volunteers and to clean up my community. This year, the Creek to Bay media site was at Southcrest Community Park so this event really hit home for me, since I grew up a few blocks from the park and the areas we cleaned up.

Southcrest pano - Moriah

The day started a bit gloomy but cleared up right before the cleanup kick-off, perfect timing! Volunteers at the site were ready to get to work right after registering. I helped volunteers sign up for service projects and handed out supplies.

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Lots of large items and invasive plants were found in the creek bed but with the help of our amazing volunteers we removed a lot of it!
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Emily, Environmental Educator and Annie, strike a pose while sorting trash collected at our Southcrest cleanup site!

When registration was over I sorted out trash in the dumpster with other ILACSD staff. While sorting we found: toilet seats, car seats, metal frames, cans, and bottles. We went ahead and removed all recyclable items and placed them in the correct bin so unnecessary items didn’t end up in the landfill. We also received a few big items like a kitchen sink, a bed, and 3 shopping carts. Unfortunately, many of the big items were found in the creek bed, but with the help of our amazing volunteers we were able to remove it! I immediately saw the aesthetic difference of the creek and reflected on the importance of proper disposal of trash and recycling. One volunteer really stood out to me because he expressed such excitement about what we were doing there and how he is eager to make behavioral changes that will benefit his community.

Besides picking up trash, there were opportunities to participate in a few other service projects at Southcrest Park. Volunteers removed invasive plants from the creek bed, stenciled storm drain along the nearby streets, as well as painted park benches and other areas to remove graffiti. The park was left looking as good as new!

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We’re thankful for the ongoing support of County Supervisor Greg Cox! Here he is lending a hand by painting picnic tables to help beautify the park!

I had an amazing time getting to know our volunteers, working with the ILACSD team, and cleaning up my community! It was also so inspiring to see my nieces and their friends get excited about cleaning up our community. It was also a great example of the importance of not littering! The whole experience left me feeling empowered and motivated; I can’t wait for the next clean-up! 

But before we start talking about our next cleanup, we’d like to debut our preliminary totals for this year’s Creek to Bay Cleanup! Drum roll please……..

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left to right: Moriah, Community Program Coordinator; Natalie, Senior Director of Operations; Lexi, Community Program Manager.

We would like to thank all of our 5,700 volunteers who took the time to make their communities clean and ensuring that our local waterways stay free of trash and pollutants! Thanks to your help, we cleaned and beautified a record number of 106 outdoor spaces and successfully removed approximately 125,000 pounds of debris countywide!

We would like to also thank our event sponsors and partners for all the help and a special thanks to Lexi Ambrogi and Natalie Roberts for coordinating such an awesome event.

Be sure to save the date for our next countywide cleanup, Coastal Cleanup Day, happening Saturday, September 19th, 2015! More information can be found at www.CleanupDay.org.

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The ILACSD team hopes to see you at our next countywide cleanup, Coastal Cleanup Day, happening Saturday, September 19th!

 

Gardeners come together at Creek to Bay

Today, we would like to highlight yet another amazing Creek to Bay site captain team! Recently, our Development and Marketing Coordinator, Sarah, sat down with Kaley, a Community Health Specialist from the International Rescue Committee (IRC) who helps lead the New Roots Community Farm program. Read on to learn more about how this diverse group of community members have come together to do much more than pick up litter.

IRC logoFirst, let’s start with a little background; what does the IRC do? The International Rescue Committee (IRC) provides health care, infrastructure, learning and economic support to people from around the world whose lives and livelihoods have been uprooted due to conflicts and disasters. Every year, the IRC resettles thousands of refugees in 22 U.S. cities, including San Diego, in efforts to help people, “survive, recover, and gain control of their future.” (www.rescue.org)
One of their most popular programs, the New Roots Community Farm, helps promote food security for approximately 90 refugee families who reside in the City Heights area. Each family has a plot where they plant, maintain and harvest food that they bring home to their families. They even have a booth at the City Heights Farmer’s Market each Saturday, as well, where farmers can sell their produce to bring in extra income for their families. 
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvmA3pEX-Ak]
But the IRC’s reach doesn’t stop there. About three years ago, the New Roots team was introduced to ILACSD through a combined partnership with Ground Works San Diego – Chollas Creek and Linda Pennington; both of which are longstanding ILACSD supporters and advocates for the well-being of City Heights and Chollas Creek. Their collaboration was a natural fit because a portion of Chollas Creek, a 32 mile natural waterway and drainage system, runs along the backside of the New Roots Community Farm. Unfortunately, the creek has been known to attract illegal dumping and litter so when it rains those pollutants move downstream impacting several neighborhoods along the way.
Linda Pennington at last year's Creek to Bay cleanup!
When asked, “What motivated your team to volunteer as site captains?” Kaley replied, without hesitation, “The free dumpster” which may seem like a comedic response but she further explained that ILACSD’s support, training and cleanup materials were great incentives to join. Additionally, her team was motivated by the fact that having pollution near a growing garden is not only unsightly, but could eventually lead to health issues. Thanks to this collaboration, the team at New Roots Community Farm now hosts quarterly cleanups in addition to their involvement with Creek to Bay and Coastal Cleanup Day, ensuring a healthy and safe garden for all to enjoy!

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The New Roots Community Farm located in City Heights is located on a 2 1/2 acre lot and provides 90 families with individual plots to feed their families.

Ensuring safe food is not the only focus for this cleanup site.  Although 90 families have plots at the garden, they often don’t see one another. Creek to Bay helps bring together one of San Diego’s most diverse communities, consisting of about dozens of different cultures and ethnicities, to enhance their local environment. It also provides them with a safe outlet to explore areas outside of the gardens. Since being introduced to I Love A Clean San Diego, volunteers have developed a native plants garden, walking paths, and removed pollutants from the creek bed. Above all else, the garden and Creek to Bay has helped to provide the gardeners with a greater connection to their new home in San Diego.

Join Kaley and her team at the New Roots Community Garden cleanup site in City Heights or choose from our other 105 sites at www.CreektoBay.org!

Standley Middle School Goes Green!

Emily, ILACSD Environmental Educator

Today’s blog comes from our Environmental Educator, Emily! Emily spends most of her time traveling to different schools around San Diego County and teaching students about different ways they can help protect their local environment. Now, schools all around the county are starting to implement more efforts to be green. One shining example of this is the Green Team from Standley Middle School in University City. Today’s blog highlights the inspiring efforts of these students and their advisor. Read on to celebrate their successes and gain ideas for starting a Green Team at a school near you!

Their journey begins in 2013, when Shelley Rannikko and her colleague took a group of students to Yosemite National Park. This trip inspired the students to become eagerly engaged as environmental stewards. As Shelley recalls, “the ten hour road trip was the perfect place to brainstorm about how we could spread the word of recycling at school through a club called ‘Green Team’.”

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In the short time since its inception, the Green Team has made a significant impact on their campus. Here’s a look at how the club is structured, and what they’ve been able to accomplish:

Mission: The purpose of our team is to educate the students and families of Standley Middle School about the importance of recycling and how to accomplish it. The team is in its second year and maintains over 35 members, with more wanting to join every day! They meet during Academic Prep.

Member Responsibilities: Students are given chores that change weekly. Chores include:

  • Bin Placement – bins provided through an Educate! grant
  • Bin Return
  • Garbage Ghosts – using trash pickers, they pull recyclables out of campus trash cans and place them in the recycling bins
  • Radical Rinsers – rinse recyclables, like plastic bowls, lids, and milk cartons
  • Green Team Ambassadors – pass out Green Team Bucks to students using the recycling bins
  • Recycling Engineers – take cleaned items to the recycling dumpster
  • Bottle Brick Makers – pack Gatorade bottles with non-recyclable items; bricks will be used to construct a bench on campus,
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These students are packing bottle bricks, which will ultimately become a bench at their school! Great example of reuse and waste diversion!

Recycling: Since its start in 2013, the Green Team has recycled:

STANDLEY’S STATS ON RECYCLING
Item Pieces or Pounds
Juice Pouches 3370
Go Go Squeezes 474
Chip Bags 2000+
Milk/Juice Cartons 150*
Plastic Bowls, Plastic Containers 200+*
Cans and Bottles 300+ pounds

*Collection started last week

Through the TerraCycling program, the students are able to recycle more than the average blue bin. GoGo Squeezes and Juice Pouches are sent to TerraCycle, where the company pays for shipping and gives money back to non-profit organizations or to a charity of your choice from their website. Check your waste hauler’s requirements, or look into innovative programs like this one!

posterGetting Others Involved: The Green Team has implemented a loyalty recycler card program to encourage students to recycle. Additionally, Green Team Ambassadors walk the quad during lunch, giving out Green Team Bucks for placing recyclables in the appropriate bins. For every six stamps or Green Team Bucks, students can earn an otter pop!

The Green Team creates videos that are shown school-wide during the Principal’s Chat. These videos promote fundraisers, the loyalty recycler card program, membership in the club, and explain what can be recycled on campus. Even Principal Bill Pearson got involved by researching how to reduce paper fliers and informational posters. His solution? Turn existing bulletin boards into chalkboards! A combination of exterior flat paint and unsanded tile grout made this possible, and it brings a bit of character to the quad.chalkboard

Looking Ahead: In addition to the bottle brick bench, the Green Team hopes to combine efforts with the Garden Club to create worm bins and start composting at their school.

If you’re interested in learning more, feel free to contact Shelley Rannikko, the Green Team Advisor, at (619) 920-2183 or srannikko@sandi.net.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHG3h1_Wghc]

 

Related Links for more information:

What is TerraCycle?:  https://www.youtube.com/user/TerraCycleVideos

Drink Pouch Recycling Brigade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG5CdXhRtrE

Bottle Bricks: http://www.utne.com/environment/eco-bricks-zm0z12ndzlin.aspx

Kicking off Creek to Bay registration!

It’s one of our favorite days of the year...the day that Creek to Bay volunteer registration officially begins!

Plan to spend the morning of April 25th with ILACSD staff and thousands of other volunteers from across San Diego County to protect and enhance San Diego’s treasured natural spaces. But don’t take our word for it. Read on to hear from one of our newest site captain teams, the Trails Committee of San Elijo Hills from San Marcos!

Once upon a time, there was a group of concerned residents who recognized a growing litter problem in their community. Instead of turning a blind eye, they chose to band together to protect their neighborhood by hosting cleanups. They called themselves the Trails Committee of San Elijo Hills. Soon after forming, they realized that they needed some help to get their vision off the ground. So Crystal, a member of the Trails Committee of San Elijo Hills, and her team turned to ILACSD for guidance and supplies.

In a recent conversation with ILACSD, Crystal shared that “The Trails Committee of San Elijo Hills is just a small group of dedicated community members. Without I Love A Clean San Diego, pulling off a cleanup of this magnitude would have been a huge effort.”

San Elijo Hills Trails
In Crystal’s words: “ILACSD is already so good at coordinating cleanups” and “they make it so easy” to get involved that it was a no-brainer to volunteer for Creek to Bay.

Well, this little group of concerned citizens organized their first cleanup last year as part of ILACSD’s annual Creek to Bay Cleanup. The results? To their surprise, more than 100 people showed up to clean up all 18 miles of the San Elijo Hills trails! What originally started as a small group of concerned community members grew almost ten-fold overnight. When asked about her favorite part of the Creek to Bay Cleanup was, Crystal replied that she enjoys connecting with others that are passionate about protecting the environment and seeing them get excited about what they are able to accomplish in just three hours.

Crystal also shared with us that cleanups like Creek to Bay are important for two reasons:

1) Volunteers physically remove the trash – instantly making our environment better.

2) The cleanups bring awareness and educate others about the problems that littering causes – encouraging community members to think twice before littering has a lasting impact.

Volunteers of all ages, including youth, are encouraged to participate!
Volunteers of all ages, including youth, are encouraged to participate!

For more information and to register for Creek to Bay, please visit www.CreektoBay.org! If you’re feeling on the fence, take these words of encouragement from Crystal, “Three hours seems like a lot of time to give on a Saturday morning, but by the end you’ll surprise yourself. You’ll have a lot of fun and you’ll also gain a greater sense of pride for your community.”

San Elijo Lagoon in Encinitas
San Diego County is connected through a network of watersheds and the San Elijo Hills Trails of San Marcos are no different. Trash flows from the trails, to Copper Creek, into San Elijo Lagoon in Encinitas (another C2B cleanup site!) and eventually out to the ocean!