Hey Party People, we did it!

Thanks to our generous supporters, Heal the Bay set an all-time attendance record for annual “Bring Back the Beach” gala Thursday night. More than 1,200 ocean lovers joined us on the sand at the Jonathan Club in Santa Monica for an evening of relaxed fun and environmental fundraising.

We met all our goals – the evening’s proceeds will underwrite almost a quarter of our annual operating budget. But as important, the night really is a great gathering of the tribe – surfers, policy wonks, soccer moms, environmental engineers, rock stars, progressive business owners, you name it.  It’s very inspiring for staff and volunteers to see such a cross-section of greater Los Angeles come out to support clean beaches and healthy watersheds. It’s not just the dollars, it’s the faith invested in our work.

The setting was sublime (another sultry night with a killer sunset), the libations savory (thirst-quenching Palomas and Heal the Bay IPA from Golden Road Brewing), the fashion eclectic (we particularly liked Olympian Greg Louganis’ kilt) and the live music bubbly (The Mowgli’s infectious pop closed the night).

There’s something for everyone at the event — whether it’s vamping the blue carpet, power networking, laid-back table hopping, bidding on a priceless trip to Belize or just hanging out with friends and family on the sand. If you want to check out images from the event, please visit our Flickr page.

This year’s honorees included Mike Sullivan, Heal the Bay board member and president of LAcarGuy, the world’s largest hybrid dealer;  LA Sanitation, the city’s public works unit leading the charge to create a more sustainable Los Angeles; and multi-Platinum rock band Incubus, whose Make Yourself Foundation has underwritten numerous Heal the Bay programs aimed at protecting our local shorelines. (It was nice to see Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Incubus frontman Brandon Boyd being generous with their time, posing for photos and chatting with supporters and fans backstage.)

We’re taking a breather today, but we’ll soon start planning for next year’s bash, which is set for May 14, 2015. We’ll be be back at the Jonathan Club, and it’s our 30th anniversary. So expect something big!

Heal the Bay CEO Ruskin Hartley gets a slice of life — and pie — spending a day in Malibu with some inspiring kids.

If you have spent any time on a surfboard you are probably familiar with Duke Paoa Kahanamoku, Hawaii’s legendary Olympic swimmer and surf evangelist. In 1912, he won the 100 meters freestyle in the Stockholm Olympics. And starting in the 1920s, he starred in a dozen feature films. But between Olympic competition and filming, he travelled the world inspiring a love of the ocean through his passion for swimming and his introduction of surfing to an unsuspecting world.

In its own way, Heal the Bay is continuing Kahanamoku’s legacy with an innovative partnership we call “Lunch and Learn.” For the past three years we have partnered with a restaurant that bears his name, Duke’s in Malibu, to introduce kids to the ocean and teach them simple things they can do to care for it every day.

The program combines an outdoor field-trip for elementary schoolchildren with a hosted sit-down lunch overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Many of these kids, all of whom come from Title I schools, have never been to the ocean despite it being in their backyard. The icing on the cake is the lunch served to them on white linen as they sit and watch for whales and dolphins (actually, the icing is fudge sauce and macadamia nuts….). I recall having that only once on a field-trip growing up, but that’s another story.

I was fortunate to help out with this morning’s field-trip. From the moment the fourth grade classes arrived on the big red bus from the Crescent Heights Language Arts/Social Justice Magnet school in Los Angeles, to the last slice of famous Hula Pie, there were smiles all around. But this wasn’t just about buses and pie, important as both are. The heart of the program teaches kids about the relationship between what they do in their everyday life and the impact it has on the ocean. The link being the stormdrain that washes the debris from their playground, street and home through to the deep blue of the Pacific Ocean.

It was inspiring to watch the kids work in groups to test hypotheses about how water will interact with various surfaces, or sieve sand in search of elusive sandcrabs. After lunch, everyone became animated during the quiz as they shouted out answers like “entanglement,” “impermeable,” and “stop littering” as they competed for prizes.

They understand that they can do simple things to help out. I found it very touching to watch them share dessert and talk about their desire to become scientists and engineers when they grew up. All that through a day at the beach, and a slice of tasty hula pie. Thank you Duke’s and the Ella Fitzgerald Foundation!

Heal the Bay provides beach education through our Lunch ‘n Learn program to 500 Title 1 students per year. Learn more about our science-based educational efforts. Lunch’ n Learn is just the beginning.