Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Community Events Intern, Gabe Grinstein.
Volunteers up bright and early to cleanup up the Morning After Mess!
Already this morning, 227 volunteers came out and joined I Love A Clean San Diego by Belmont Park in Mission Beach for the Morning After Mess cleanup. After having the day off yesterday to celebrate Independence Day, there was no better way to start off the day than with a beach cleanup to recover all the mess from yesterday’s festivities. It was an early start for me, getting up at 7 so I could get to Belmont Park by 8 to start setting up. To be honest, I started quite slow since I was very tired, but I woke up once people started to come by and sign up. The mood was great around the volunteers as there were many eager people ready to participate, and we had 94/9 radio right next to us playing music and advertising our organization and event on the radio.
Volunteers combed the beaches picking up cigarette butts, plastic bags, bottles, and more.
Time always flies by during events since it becomes so busy. I didn’t clean up any trash, but I weighed the trash and recycling bags, and added tally-marks to the big board to show how many cigarette butts, plastic bags, styrofoam pieces, and other items that we collected. By the end, we had marked 8,260 cigarette butts! This is an astonishing number since one cigarette butt can contaminate up to one gallon of water, so thankfully we picked them up before they reached the water.
Gabe keeping track of trash as it came in.
Volunteers also picked up 80 plastic bags, 134 styrofoam pieces, 345 pounds of trash, and 130 pounds of recyclables. People began to leave after a couple of hours and we started wrapping up around 11:30. The end is always my favorite part of the cleanups because I get to see all of the smiles of people when they turn their bags in. I can always see a sense of accomplishment on the faces of the volunteers. It is a great feeling knowing that we bettered the environment we live in, even if it wasn’t our mess.
Many people will look at this picture and squint at it thinking, what is that?
“Are those rocks?” is a common question we’ve heard since releasing this picture after last week’s Kids Ocean Day. The design is definitely not made of rocks, or shells, or even trash from a cleanup. This amazing image is a piece of living art made up of over 1000 people. Yep, those are local San Diego students, parents, volunteers and the ILACSD staff sitting on the sand at Crown Point Shores sending a message to the rest of San Diego to ‘Defend the Sea.’
Kids Ocean Day is how we here at I Love A Clean San Diego get kids involved in celebrating World Oceans Day each year. This amazing work of art started as just an idea a few months ago, and was brought to life by ILACSD’s Environmental Educator, Alex Mullen-Ley and Education Coordinator, Samantha. Our staff were up before the sun last Thursday, mapping out and drawing Alex’s design in the sand.
As the buses began arriving, 3rd-5th grade students from 8 local schools started the day by cleaning up the beach, finding cigarette butts, beverage containers and small pieces of plastic.
The excitement started to build as we began lining the students up to file into the aerial art and the news helicopter started circling overhead. It was amazing to watch our octopus come to life piece by piece as the students and volunteers started to fill in the lines of the image. Most of the kids had never been a part of anything like this and were very excited to find their place in the sand.
Last but not least, the I Love A Clean San Diego staff sat down to form the eye of the octopus.
The second helicopter arrived, carrying our friend and photographer Rachel Lebowitz from Outside the Lens, another local nonprofit that teaches youth to use digital media to create change within themselves and their community. We were so impressed at how well behaved the students were as we waited for word from Rachel that she’d gotten the perfect shot!
Kids Ocean Day was coordinated in 5 cities in California, all using the theme ‘Defend the Sea’ in their designs. Click here to visit the Ocean Day website and see all of the amazing aerial art images!
On Saturday, April 28th, 2012, volunteers from across San Diego County joined together for I Love A Clean San Diego’s 10th Annual Creek to Bay Cleanup. After gathering information from all of our sites, we’re excited to officially announce our totals:
88 cleanup sites (29 coastal, 59 inland)
6,000 volunteers
185 miles of coastal and inland areas covered
150,000 pounds of trash
These numbers reflect approximately 600 MORE volunteers than last year, but they collected a few thousand pounds LESS in trash and debris than the previous year’s totals. What does this mean? Our cleanup events like Creek to Bay and the upcoming Coastal Cleanup Day, are effective and San Diego is becoming a cleaner city! Although we expanded into brand new (and much dirtier) sites, many of our volunteer Site Captains noted a decrease in pollution in their areas. In the upcoming years, we look forward to focusing on newer, in-need sites that haven’t received as much attention in the past.
Updated: Photo contest voting has ended. You can see our winner here!
Although the cleanup has ended, don’t forget to vote for your favorite picture from the event on our Facebook page for our Volunteers In Action Photo Contest! Volunteers sent in photos that they thought represented the spirit of the Creek to Bay Cleanup with hopes of winning a brand new Sony camera. We’ve narrowed the contest down to three finalists:
Today’s post comes from ILACSD Environmental Educator, Alex Mullen-Ley.
Kids’ Ocean Day 2011 Aerial Art
It’s hard to imagine that there are children here in San Diego who have never been to the beach before. Many of us take for granted that when it gets hot outside, everyone heads to the coast. One of I Love A Clean San Diego’s upcoming educational programs is giving underserved youth the chance to visit the beach for the very first time.
On June 7th, as part of the 19th annual Kids’ Ocean Day Adopt-A-Beach Cleanup, ILACSD is coordinating nearly 900 students from eight Title I schools to help clean up the beach and make a visual statement in the sand about their concern for the future of the oceans. This is the third year that ILACSD will be holding the event at Crown Point Shores, and the ninth year that we have acted as the regional coordinators.
The annual event started in Los Angeles in 1994 by the Malibu Foundation for Environmental Education and the California Coastal Commission. The original goals of the program were to increase public awareness of ocean issues and to connect children to the marine environment. Over the past 18 years, the event’s range has expanded to include 7 cities along the California coast.
During the month of May, ILACSD’s educators will visit each school to give the students a presentation about the importance of minimizing our impact on the marine environment and to get them excited to participate in the aerial art project. We will meet them again at the beach on June 7th. At last year’s event we had almost 200 students attend who experienced the beach for the first time, and we expect to have a similar number this year. The theme for this year’s Kids’ Ocean Day is “Defend the Sea.”We are keeping the aerial art design a secret for now, but we can say that it will be an exciting first in the program’s history!
We are still looking for adult volunteers to help with the event from 8:00am to 1:00pm. If you are interested in signing up to volunteer, please contact Jemma De Leon at jdeleon@cleansd.org.
Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Marketing Intern and USD student, Maddy Blake. Updated 5/3/2012 with new totals!
ILACSD’s Staff ready for the big day!
I Love A Clean San Diego celebrated its 10th annual Creek to Bay Cleanup this past Saturday, April 28th. An amazing 5,800 San Diegans joined together across the county to preserve and beautify their local environment. This year also marks the San Diego Girl Scouts’ 100th anniversary, over 1200 of scouts took part in the cleanup to show their commitment to the environment and witness the effects that pollution has on their communities.
Volunteers separated trash and recyclables.
Thanks to all of these fantastic volunteers, San Diego is a much cleaner county. In fact, more than 150,000 pounds of trash and debris were removed from local parks, canyons, creeks, bays and beaches in the span of just three hours! As in years past, cigarette butts and plastic bags were among the most common items found, but this year, some of the most interesting items our volunteers picked up were a rocking horse, a bowling pin and a five-gallon container of pickles.
Daisy scouts pitch in at Creek to Bay.
With a total of 88 cleanup sites, the most we’ve ever had for Creek to Bay, there was somewhere for everyone to go and something for everyone to do. This year, cleanup events were held at five brand new sites in communities we hadn’t reached yet:
Paradise Hills – 40 volunteers filled an entire roll-away dumpster of debris
Spring Valley – 49 volunteers collected over 260 pounds of debris
Santa Ysabel – 20 volunteers removed 200 pounds of debris
Banker’s Hill – 49 volunteers removed 250 pounds of debris
University Heights – 32 volunteers can boast removing 1,200 pounds of debris
You read that right, at the site known as Camelot Canyon (the area beside the 163 at the Vermont St. bridge in University Heights), volunteers picked up 1,200 pounds of debris in that three hour timeframe and unfortunately there is more work to be done in that area. The site was brought to our attention by local University Heights resident, Alison Whitney, who bikes past the canyon on her way to work everyday. With the help of CalTrans and ILACSD, Alison organized this cleanup to make this corner of her community a little more enjoyable for local residents. Click here to read Alison’s interview with KPBS.
Just a sample of some of the debris picked up.
While about 40% of this year’s cleanup sites were in coastal areas, cleaning up inland sites like Camelot Canyon ensures that the trash will not travel down the watershed systemand end up in our waterways, bays and the ocean. Furthermore, by expanding into the five new sites, an additional 2,000 pounds of debris were removed from the environment! After ten years, I Love A Clean San Diego still dedicates itself to county-wide programs and expanding its reach even farther to preserve and ensure a healthier San Diego for everyone.
Volunteers painting over graffiti near Fashion Valley Mall.
Picking up trash is not the only activity our volunteers participated in – many sites included other beautification projects such as graffiti removal, mural painting, native planting, brush maintenance and other general park maintenance.
Don’t forget – if you joined us at Creek to Bay this year, remember to submit your favorite photo to ILACSD for our Sony Volunteers In Action photo contest! Photos are due on May 4, 2012, then the top 3 photos will be posted on our Facebook page, where our fans will vote for their favorite. The winner will be announced on May 18th! Click here for more details.
We want to thank ALL of the volunteers who took time out of their weekend to do more with their morning at the 10th Annual Creek to Bay Cleanup! We’d like to give a special thank you to the following volunteer groups who came out to show their love for a clean San Diego:
Local members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormon Helping Hands Service Day
For many years, Bob and Jan Rogers saw a need for beach cleanups and public awareness about clean water in their local community. Since 2004, the couple have been site captains at Beacon’s Beach for ILACSD’s annual Creek to Bay Cleanup and have even involved their family in the fun. “When we first started with the beach cleanup program, our sons were part of the volunteers cleaning the beach. They are now married and our son, Jesse, and his wife work as our bilingual co-captains. Our son, Randy, and his wife, Virginia, also help out as volunteers – they now have a daughter, Sierra, and she is also part of the beach cleanup crew.”
Because the family spends so much time together at Beacon’s Beach (and it’s Bob’s favorite surfing location!), they realize the importance of keeping the water clean and safe and value being a part of this volunteer effort every year.
One of the main goals of the Creek to Bay Cleanup is for residents to gain a sense of ownership of the local environment, especially by teaching the next generation of San Diegans the importance of keeping our community clean. Bob and Jan say, “It’s a great learning experience for the kids. A friend of ours brought her son to Beacon’s years ago and now wherever they go to the beach he picks up trash. They are the stewards of the environment.” The Rogers family also encourages all of the volunteers at their site to bring their own reusable supplies, like gloves and buckets, so that they aren’t producing more waste by using plastic bags and latex gloves at the cleanup.
All of us here want to thank Bob, Jan and the entire Rogers family for dedicating their time each year to cleaning their local beach and spreading awareness about the importance of keeping San Diego clean to their community!
The Rogers Family!
What motivated you both to volunteer with ILACSD?
We moved to Leucadia in ’96 and saw the need for beach cleanups and public awareness about clean water. We love the beach and feel we all have a responsibility to give back.
How long have you been volunteering with ILACSD?
In 1998 we organized our first beach cleanup at South Pontos. Surfriders sent us to Coastkeepers and from there we made contact with ILACSD. With each group we’ve met friends that share our interest in the environment.
How long have you been a site captains for Creek to Bay?
We have collected some of the posters from our beach cleanups. After checking the posters we figured we began around 2004.
Have you always been a captain at one particular site?
We captain Beacon’s Beach for Creek to Bay, South Pontos for “Day After the Mess” and back to Beacon’s Beach for the Sept. Coastkeeper International Beach cleanup.
Why is that site important to you?
This is our neighborhood beach. It attracts families so we get a lot of children at the cleanups. Bob also surfs Beacon’s.
What is your favorite part of participating in the Creek to Bay cleanup?
The returning people that come back year after year and the kids.
Why do you think cleanups like Creek to Bay are important to keeping San Diego healthy and clean?
It’s a vehicle for getting the word out about keeping beaches and our waterways clean. It’s a great learning experience for the kids. A friend of mine brought her son to Beacon’s years ago and now wherever they go to the beach he picks up trash. They are the stewards of the environment. It’s a great event.
What is the strangest piece of trash you’ve found at a Creek to Bay Cleanup?
Led Zepplin album and a jar of pickles (?). In the future, it would be nice to see no balloons, cigarettes and plastic trash bags. Also, volunteers bringing their own supplies to cut down on the debris we generate.
We love doing this. It is so rewarding.
Registration for ILACSD’s annual Creek to Bay Cleanup is now open at www.creektobay.org. Out of the 86 cleanup sites around San Diego county, there’s bound to be one near you! Join us on Saturday morning, April 28th to be a steward of the environment and domore with your morning.
In the winter of 2010, San Diego CoastKeeper and I Love A Clean San Diego partnered together to start a new project called Trash Trackers. One year later, the results are in!
Trash Trackers began as a program to document our impact on the environment, and see how cleanups help in the long run. During the study, volunteers counted each piece of trash within a one-hundred foot stretch next to a local stream or creek. They cleaned the entire area and documented how many pieces, and what types, of trash they found. One year later, volunteers combed the same one-hundred foot stretch in order to find out how much more trash had accumulated within that time period due to either upstream accumulation or littering directly on site.
Thousands of Styrofoam pieces along the Otay River
So what did we find?
Each of our four sites – Otay River, San Diego River, Buena Vista Creek, and Chollas Creek – showed drastic decreases in the number of items found at the second cleanup. Whereas Otay River showed a 14.5% decrease, the San Diego River showed 63% less, Buena Vista Creek showed 68% less and Chollas Creek documented an amazing 74% less!
One area of Chollas Creek before cleanup
Even the biohazardous material was down an average of 27% at all of the sites.
Thanks to 700 volunteers over the last two years, this program removed 18,400 pounds of debris that otherwise may have ended up in our oceans. By removing this trash every year, we have direct evidence that our cleanup events not only remove debris from the immediate site, but they also help to ensure that in the future, the creeks are cleaner for everyone’s enjoyment.
"The Pit" along the San Diego River by Fashion Valley Mall
Here at I Love A Clean San Diego, we are dedicated to keeping our community clean! The implementation of the Trash Trackers program allows us to collect hard data that reveal the problems that ensue from littering in waterways. We hope that our actions and the photos above inspire individuals to take responsibly for their local environment and get involved in in preventing litter around our community. After all, don’t we all love a clean San Diego?
Sometimes cleaning up our environment means we have to get a little dirty in the process, but that doesn’t stop our volunteers!
Cupid's Cleanup 2011
Each year around Valentine’s Day, I Love A Clean San Diego organizes the Cupid’s Cleanup as a way for eco-minded singles, couples, and friends to show their love for a clean San Diego by cleaning up an area of our local community. We put on smaller cleanups like Cupid’s each month in communities across San Diego county who have well, gotten a little dirty. We announced last week that in 2011 we mobilized more than 29,000 volunteers who picked up 241 tons of trash from our community’s beaches, waterways, canyons, and parks.
Why get dirty at these cleanups?
Events like Cupid’s cleanup are vital to the health of our local environment and are an important part of preserving the San Diego way of life that we all love so much. Keeping trash out of our ocean not only helps the animals who live there, but also makes it safer for all San Diego residents to swim, surf and play in our coastal waters. If left where it was, that 241 tons of trash would have eventually made it’s way into our waterways and ultimately into the ocean. Who wants to hang out near a big batch of trash soup?
In addition to smaller monthly cleanups, ILACSD coordinates two of the largest countywide cleanup events each year, our signature event the Creek to Bay Cleanup coming up on April 28th, 2012, as well as Coastal Cleanup Day on September 15, 2012. This gives San Diego residents various volunteer options and they see first-hand how trash makes its way from inland communities all the way to the coast through San Diego County’s vast watershed system.
To sign up for Cupid’s Cleanup contact our Community Events Coordinator, Jemma atjdeleon@cleansd.orgor at 619.704.2778 today!
That’s right, after a significant hiatus from blogging, I Love A Clean San Diego is back! We have so much to say, and so many events to talk about, restarting the blog was pretty much a no-brainer. Many of our staff members will be contributing to the blog, and if you’d like to be featured as a guest blogger to give a first-hand account of your experiences with ILACSD please contact u.
We look forward to sharing with you and hearing from all of you who have helped shape the environmental movement in San Diego County!
