It was a glorious day, warmer than we expected. Swarms of people filled the beach right below the Santa Monica Pier. All of them there to volunteer to clean up the beach. There must have been 300 - 400 people in total. We found as many 4GOOD members as we could and headed to the instruction portion of the day...the Heal the Bay volunteer explained to us how the trash ended up on the beach...not what you think- most of it comes from the storm drains getting filled with trash and without any filters all the trash ends up in the ocean which washes up on the beach. So if you see any trash on the street, pick it up, no matter how small. Even rubber-bands from a Newspaper can be harmful.
After we were handed gloves and trash bags...off we went with all the kids in tow...walking and searching for some trash- anything other than dried bird poop. Unfortunately, since so many others preceded us, there wasn't much trash to pick up. But with the kids running around searching for any scrap of trash and the adults watching them and basking in the beautiful sun, we had a great time.
When we headed back to drop off the trash bags - the kids felt they had accomplished something good. "We helped the environment today" Russel said. "We found a lot of trash today" Alexandra said.
It was a great way to kick off National Volunteer Week and Earth Day.
Thank you to all the 4GOOD members who showed up (whether we found you or not) and thanks to those who were there in Spirit! It was a wonderful day!
See next time!
Pictures of the Event
