Success From Summit to Sea in September 2023
Coastal Cleanup Month 2023 was a big success for Heal the Bay! Thank you to all our Healers who made this amazing month possible. Join us for a look back at all we accomplished in September of 2023, from Summit to Sea, and get ready for all we have to look forward to in October of 2023.
Spectrum 1 Spotlight: Heal the Bay’s Everyday Heroes Kick off Coastal Cleanup Day
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Kicking off Coastal Cleanup Day — Check out the incredible news package featuring our own Meredith McCarthy and long-time rockstar volunteer Fallon Rabin for Spectrum News 1 “Everyday Hero” weekly segment that ran hourly throughout the programming day and evening.
Coastal Cleanup Education Day 2023
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
The Wednesday before Coastal Cleanup Day was “Coastal Cleanup Education Day” at the Aquarium and it was all hands on deck for Heal the Bay staff. Our Aquarium hosted more than 250 3rd-5th grade students from across Los Angeles County for a day of beach exploration, scientific excursions, pollution education, and hands on learning while having some fun in the sun.
ONE Water Day
Friday, September 22, 2023
Our third annual ONE Water Day was a huge success and reintroduced Heal the Bay as a thought leader on water policy in LA! Heal the Bay convened the top LA water agencies, state leaders, and policy experts to participate in a compelling conversation about how to balance reliability and affordability as we adapt to a changing climate. We also welcomed California Assemblymember Laura Friedman (AD 44) and Senator Ben Allen (SD 24), along with several City and County staff. We were also pleased to host our partners from local engineering firms to listen in to the big water issues impacting the future of our City, County and State.
This year’s theme was balancing reliability and affordability – we discussed how water agencies and state leaders are planning to pay for the multi-billion-dollar water recycling projects planned for LA County and how they will ensure that underserved and low-income communities will be able to afford water for their basic needs. The consensus was clear — we will do it by working together! Water agencies, state and federal partners, NGOs, and the business community must come together to invest in innovative solutions to achieve our water reliability and climate resilience goals.
A special thank you to our 2023 ONE Water Day Sponsors Brown & Caldwell, CDM Smith, Metropolitan Water District for making this event possible.
Coastal Cleanup Day
Saturday, September 23, 2023
Coastal Cleanup Day was a tremendous success this year. Our staff and volunteers overcame every obstacle thrown at them and came together to achieve the best Coastal Cleanup Day in years! The teamwork was absolutely inspirational. There is no question that we had an incredible turn out and we’ve already turned our eyes to next year (Sept 21, 2023) where we are planning to do even better.
Starting in August LA was a buzz with excitement over Coastal Cleanup Day 2023. Registration for Heal the Bay sites were covered by news outlets like LAist (KPCC), Good Day LA, Spectrum News1, the OC Register, and many more. Even our local elected officials got into the spirit if CCD including LA City Councilwoman Traci Park (CD11) who proudly donned a Heal the Bay shirt in City Council to promote Coastal Cleanup Day. Check out her full City Council presentation from the August 25th, 2023 meeting.
The energy on the day of was nothing less than spectacular across our many beach, underwater, neighborhood and inland sites.
Enjoy some on the sand coverage from KCLA who joined our volunteers at the Santa Monica Pier cleanup site: Thousands hit SoCal beaches for California Coastal Cleanup Day – CBS Los Angeles (cbsnews.com)
And now that the FINAL results are in, drumroll please…
Los Angeles County Numbers (Heal the Bay Sites)
- 47 Cleanup Sites Reported
- 7,337 volunteers
- 1,646 volunteers who brought their own cleanup supplies
- 16,211 pounds of trash
- 429 pounds of recycling
- 97.5 miles of beach, river, underwater, and neighborhoods sites cleaned.
- 15 Inland Cleanups, 31 Coastal Cleanups, 2 Dive Cleanups
Check out our Coastal Cleanup Day Wrap-up Blog for more stats and the California Commissions latest recap on the Statewide numbers.
And a special thank you to our 2023 Coastal Cleanup Day Sponsors:
LOOKING AHEAD:
Heal the Bay Day in LA
Friday, October 20, 2023
SAVE THE DATE: On October 20th, the Los Angeles City Council (presented by Councilwoman Traci Park – CD11) will honor Heal the Bay for the 20th Anniversary of our Aquarium and Angler Outreach Program and declare October 20, 2023, Heal the Bay Day in LA. I hope you can join us in City Council Chambers between 10am – 12noon.
