Heal the Bay Blog

For six years, Heal the Bay has organized “A Day Without a Bag” to kick off the holiday season, encouraging people to skip single-use plastic. But this year we proudly celebrated “A Day With a Bag” – a reusable one – to commemorate the City of Los Angeles’ plastic bag ban, which goes into effect Jan. 1. Heal the Bay helped organize the distribution of 8,000 free reusable bags to residents in all corners of L.A. and every council district.

The mobilization wouldn’t have been possible without the assistance of the following groups: The Children’s Nature Institute, Tree People, One Generation, Temple Judea, PAVA, Sun Valley High School, Pacoima Beautiful, St. Raphaels, Augustus Hawkins Nature Park, Challengers Boys and Girls Club, EsoWon Books, Palisades Cares, Boys & Girls Clubs of Venice, CSUN service learning students, Echo Park TAP, LA Beautification Team, Urban Semillas, Punk Rock Marthas, Cathy Beauregard and a group of UCLA students. More information about all of these terrific partners can be found through our distribution site map.

Inland cleanups help beautify a community and educate about the connection between urban areas to the east and the Santa Monica Bay. We also salute JingTian Ye, president and founder of the Bottles for the Bay Foundation in Rowland Heights, who understands that connection and generously purchased three cases of heavy-duty bags for use at our inland cleanups.

Our first-ever S.T.E.A.M. Machines event Nov. 9 on the Santa Monica Pier was a smashing success. Presented by Heal the Bay and Time Warner Cable’s Connect a Million Minds initiative, the day included LA’s inaugural Rube Goldberg Contest and a host of innovative activities for all ages.

A huge thank you goes to sponsor Time Warner Cable and to the staff of the Santa Monica Pier Corporation for their collaboration. Contestants in the Rube Goldberg Machines competition brought their enthusiasm, passion and engineering acumen to the curious contraptions they created to complete the task of zipping a zipper. Kudos to the teams from Santiago Canyon College, Rancho Dominguez Preparatory School, Malibu High School, King Drew Magnet High School and Washington Preparatory High School.

Judges Dina Keirouz, Preston Williams, Hector Alvarez and Dan Busby get perfect scores for not only judging the contest, but for going above and beyond by providing invaluable feedback to all.

Pacific Park, Marbles the Brain Store, Trash for Teaching, Two-bit Circus, The Exploratory and the reDiscover Center brought games and materials that delivered hands-on fun for all. Ben Kay and his Santa Monica High School students of Team Marine provided a lesson in converting a car from gas to electric. Peddlers’ Creamery brought the sweet, cold treat everyone enjoyed on an unseasonably warm November Saturday atop the Pier. DJ Agent Blak created the perfect soundtrack for the day.

Beneath the Pier, visitors to our Santa Monica Pier Aquarium spent hours driving an underwater R.O.V. (remotely operated vehicle) thanks to Aquarium advisory board member Kurt Holland. Kurt financed, built and staffed the Aquarium’s ROV station vehicle during S.T.E.A.M. Machines. And finally, Dale Voelker of Digital Lava Graphic Designs created a Rube Goldberg-esque graphic of Heal the Bay’s successful efforts to ban plastic bags in the city of Los Angeles. The poster remains as a teaching tool in the Aquarium’s Green Room.

We can’t wait for next year’s S.T.E.A.M. machines event!

We’re still glowing from a sunny Tuesday morning on the beach with a group of third graders from Parthenia Elementary School in North Hills.Yes, a late autumn sun contributed to the color in our cheeks, but the lasting glow comes from the generous assistance to our field trip programs provided by the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation and Duke’s Malibu.

The foundation and the iconic surfside restaurant support our Lunch n’ Learn initiative, designed to help foster a love of the ocean in students from the region’s underserved areas. The students’ transportation to the beach and the gift of a book for each child were provided through the foundation’s Fairy Godmother Grant program. After a morning of science-based ocean exploration, the kids were treated to a lunch hosted by Duke’s – with Hula Pie for all!

Meanwhile, Santa Monica Pier Aquarium volunteers do an amazing job at helping us keep our marine science education center spotless and volunteer Lennie Shelton took that responsibility above and beyond last week to give some of our artifacts a thorough cleaning. Set in super thick resin, the preserved skeletons and invertebrates had become so scuffed it was impossible to see what they were. Lennie gave these vital teaching tools a proper buffing – and he’s taken a second set home to buff out as well. Many thanks for the extra effort, Lennie!