Throwing it Back for Kids’ Ocean Day 2014

Today’s blog post comes from aerial art aficionado and environmental educator extraordinaire Erika Bjorkquist. 

It’s that time of year again; we are rushing from school to school and getting gloves and bags ready for the annual Kids’ Ocean Day! This year, Kids’ Ocean Day will be celebrated in San Diego on June 5^th at Crown Point Shores on Mission Bay. This event brings close to 1,000 elementary school students from low-income communities to the beach to participate in a beach cleanup and create a message about ocean conservation that can be seen from the sky (aka aerial art)!

In the past, messages have included  the words, “Listen” “Defend our Sea” “Coexist” and “Sustain Life”. This year, we put our spin on Ocean Literacy Principle #1 and our message will be “One CLEAN Ocean.” This is all part of a statewide program organized by the California Coastal Commission each year. Other cities participating include: Orange County, LA, San Francisco and Humboldt.

We will also be bringing back our first mascot, Pelican Pete, to represent a bird of the Pacific Flyway, and to help celebrate to our 60^th anniversary.

Here is a sneak peek of what this year’s aerial art is shaping up to look like:

We may have taken a few creative liberties, but he still looks pretty similar to our pal Pelican Pete, who debuted in 1961.

Still can’t wrap your head around what it looks like when 1,000 students form a piece of artwork the size of a football field with just their bodies? Here’s a shot from a previous Kids’ Ocean Day event.

While all of the schools and students have already been confirmed, we still need adult volunteers to help make this year’s event a success. Most volunteers don’t actual do the cleaning up, but instead supervise the youth as they clean up and help to arrange everyone in the aerial art formation. After the cleanup, volunteers and students will join together on the sand for the aerial art, which will be photographed from above in a helicopter!

We’re asking volunteers to meet us on site at 8AM, and the event will wrap up by 12. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact our Community Events Coordinator, Lexi Ambrogi at: lambrogi@cleansd.org and  619-704-2778.