The Ventura Chapter’s Beach Cleanup!
Written By: Priyal Choudhary, Ventura Chapter Curriculum Member
Guess what? We did it! The Ventura Chapter hosted their first beach cleanup at Zuma Beach on July 31st, 2021! In this post we will talk about the beach cleanup experience, our partners in this event, and why it was needed to do this project. Stick around, and it might inspire you to host or participate in a cleanup!
My Experience as Ventura Chapter:
As a newly recruited member to the Ventura Chapter, I can say that this event was an amazing start for my journey with The Tomorrow Project. All the members were recruited on July 11th, and in 20 days we managed to plan, brainstorm, and execute a beach cleanup with just 45 volunteers! We started off the event with the first half dedicated to picking up trash, and the second half for playing games and winning prizes supplied by our sponsor, United by Blue. We were able to pick up ten full bags of trash in total! The games were especially fun, as we played limbo, did a relay race, had a sand art competition, and had another competition where the group who picked up the most trash wins. Everyone was playfully competitive because of the prizes consisting of hats, backpacks, water bottles, and metal straws! All the participants enjoyed a lot and most definitely made life-long memories.
Our Partners:
The beach cleanup would not have been able to be pulled off without our amazing partners! One of our partners was Project EFA, a high school club dedicated to raise awareness and funds to students globally who can not access an education. They helped us plan, market, and host the event with us. Another partner we had during this project was our sponsor, United By Blue. They sent us many prizes for our game portion of the cleanup. We partnered with this company for this event because their mission is to stop trash from entering beaches. All their products are made in an eco-friendly way, and they participate in ethical manufacturing and only use sustainable materials in their products. Learn more about them at United by Blue!
Why Beach Cleanup?
According to www.condorferries.co.uk, 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic waste are currently estimated to be in our oceans. 269,000 tons float and 4 billion microfibers stay on the ground of our seas. 70% of the debris stays in the bottom of the ocean, 15% float, and the last 15% stay on our beaches. This debris harms physical habitats, transports chemical pollutants, endangers aquatic life, and interferes with human use of the beaches. It is said that if every person picks up just a piece of trash today, there will be 300 million fewer pieces of litter. This small beach cleanup is just the start of a huge revolution for a cleaner world.
Written by: Priyal Choudhary, Chapter Curriculum Member
Edited by: Ishya Cherukupalli, Chapter Manager
Pictures!
