Thank You Thursday 9-24-15

We couldn’t do our work without the committed volunteers that are the backbone of Heal the Bay. This is especially true in the month of September, when we coordinate Coastal Cleanup Day for LA County.

On September 19th, 9,475 volunteers removed 21,310 pounds of trash from over 60 miles of territory (including three underwater sites). A huge thank you to everyone who cleaned our beaches, parks and waterways on a sweltering Saturday, and to the LA County Board of Supervisors and the Coastal Cleanup Day site captains.

We are so grateful to our sponsors:

Mattel, REI, City of Santa Monica, LA Department of PublicWorks, the California Coastal Commission, Anheuser-Busch InBev, simplehuman, Union Bank, and Kaiser Permanente.

The Wednesday before Coastal Cleanup Day, Heal the Bay gives more than 700 students from underserved schools a day at the beach, where they learn about ocean conservation through a series of games by the shore and visit the marine life at our Santa Monica Pier Aquarium It’s all-hands on deck for this action packed day, and by the time the kids are back on their buses, staff and volunteers have worked up an impressive appetite. Thanks to Grey Block Pizza, we weren’t hungry for long. The donation of a variety of delicious pies was greatly appreciated.

And it was so neighborly – and generous – of Rusty’s Surf Ranch on the Pier to name our Aquarium as their beneficiary during Santa Monica’s Buy Local/Get Local week. Rusty’s donated a portion of the week’s sales to the Aquarium.

Heal the Bay will receive proceeds from General Admission of Venice’s sales at this weekend’s Abbot Kinney Festival as well.

And lastly, thanks to the Environmental Learning Center at Hyperion for hosting our Speaker’s Bureau training this August.  Congrats to the 19 new volunteers who graduated from the training.

.