Meet Niki, taking photography to new heights!

Living in San Diego, we are fortunate to have so many local organizations making a difference in our community. We are happy to collaborate with Outside the Lens for this year’s Kids’ Ocean Day. Niki Even, Program Director at Outside the Lens, will be taking photography to new heights by becoming this year’s aerial art photographer. On June 6th, close to 1,000 San Diego youth will descend on Crown Point Shores in Mission Bay to send a clear environmental message to the community. These students will perform a beach cleanup, and then form a giant aerial art image of a child listening to a seashell and spelling out the word “LISTEN”, reminding San Diegans about the importance of listening to and living in harmony with the marine environment.

Photos by youth from Outside the Lens

Niki Even has worked for Outside the Lens for the last 6 years, first as the lead media educator and now as the program director.  Her favorite part of each day is the ability to share the power of digital media to youth throughout San Diego County.   She is thrilled to continue the partnership with I Love A Clean San Diego during Kids’ Ocean Day, combining her love for photography and her passion for education regarding important community topics.

Outside the Lens empowers youth to use digital media to create change within themselves, their community and their world. Their year-long outreach programs include a curriculum component called Water in Focus.  Here, students participate in a global photography project that calls them to action as they document the use, waste, conservation, and pollution of water through words and images.  I Love a Clean San Diego has participated in visiting Outside the Lens’ classrooms as guest speakers and partnered on community water events with Outside the Lens students.

Niki says, “[i]t’s always exciting to watch our students make a positive change in their personal habits or help create community change based on the images they took and the opportunity to see their world through a new lens, the lens of the camera.”

We are so excited to work with OTL once more and look forward to seeing the captured image.

Boxes Set to Hit the Beach for Memorial Day!

With Memorial Day Weekend approaching, many of us are making plans to spend time with family and friends at our beautiful San Diego beaches. But at the end of the day, barbeques, picnics and parties tend to create one thing: lots of trash.

For years, the influx of beachgoers had been synonymous with an increase in litter, as the existing trash cans at beaches tend to fill up very quickly. But I Love A Clean San Diego is leading the charge in reversing this trend with an innovative program called the Clean Beach Coalition.

The Clean Beach Coalition is a joint effort between non-profits, community groups and local government agencies to prevent litter and pollution from our San Diego beaches. We work closely with the City of San Diego’s Park and Recreation Department, Free PB, and several local businesses to bring this summertime program to our beaches. You may recognize this cardboard bin [see attached photo of bin]—we place 200 of them at the most popular city beaches over the summer holiday weekends to ensure that beachgoers will have access to trash and recycling receptacles.

Enjoy your bash but can your trash!

How effective is this program? Last year, these bins collected more than 84,000 pounds of trash and recyclables that may have otherwise ended up as litter on our shoreline. And over the last 3 years, we’ve seen a significant decrease in the amount of trash collected from Mission Beach at our yearly July 5^th cleanup, the Morning After Mess. At the 2012 event, our volunteers found nearly a 50% decrease in litter from just 2 years earlier!

In fact, we’re so excited about the impact of the Clean Beach Coalition that we’re going to kick off this program one holiday earlier in 2013. In addition to placing 100 bins at beaches on July 4 and 50 over Labor Day weekend, we’ll have another 50 trash and recycling bins out at your favorite beach hangouts over Memorial Day Weekend! Look for them at Mission Bay, Pacific Beach, Ocean Beach and Mission Beach.

We’d love to see this program in action, so we’re giving away 10 Rubio’s gift cards to the first 10 people to send us photos of our Clean Beach Coalition bins on the beaches! Snap a photo of the bin in use and email it to iloveacleansd@gmail.com.

Want to get involved? We’re looking for a handful of dedicated volunteers to help us assemble these temporary bins on Thursday, May 23. Contact Lexi at lambrogi@cleansd.org or (619)-704-2778 to sign up.

Help us spread the word about preventing litter at the beach this summer. Need a catchphrase? Try this one: enjoy the scene, but keep it clean!

Meet Nicole, new ILACSD educator

Today’s blog post comes from Nicole McAleer, our newest environmental educator.

 

I recently joined the I Love A Clean San Diego team as an Environmental Educator. I am really enthusiastic about environmental education and, through ILACSD, I am able to bring my passion and energy to schools all over San Diego County. I have a lovely mobile classroom equipped with high tech gear and cool props to help me present information about watersheds and storm drain pollution to school group of all ages. The students really enjoy taking part in hands-on learning activities like “Sum of Parts”, where they see how a piece of trash can travel through a watershed to the ocean. It gets the kids all riled up to see how misplaced trash can alter their beach experience. I also encourage each student to get involved in preserving the environment through incorporation of the “3 R’s” in their daily lives and participation in I Love A Clean San Diego’s cleanup events. Students have the opportunity to sign up to become more involved in cleanup events on the spot. The students are always directed to the cleanup site closest to their school. More than once students were unaware that there was a waterway or canyon so close that needed their help! I’m always impressed that kids want to get involved and are willing to make simple changes in their daily lives to protect and preserve the environment. Having such strong and dedicated a volunteer base is what has enable ILACSD to remove about 500,000 of trash from San Diego beaches and inland waterways annually.

Prior to working at I Love A Clean San Diego, I earned my Masters of Arts in Teaching and have worked as a Nature and Environmental Educator. I am an avid outdoor enthusiast with a passion for the environment and belief in service to her community.

Here’s Nicole acting as a site captain for Coastal Cleanup Day

In my free time I enjoy spending time being active outdoors. I love hiking, biking, kayaking swimming, running and walking my two dogs (I always remember to scoop the poop). I also love the beach! My love of the outdoors and appreciation of plants and wildlife is part of my inspiration to educate future generations about the importance of protecting the environment. I have learned a lot of new information while working at ILACSD. I was shocked to see that litter in the form of small cigarette butts has such a large impact on water quality in addition to the high quantities they are always found at each clean up event. I stay current on what is going on in the local community through participation in professional development and recently participated in water quality monitoring with Coastkeepers and attended workshops hosted by the Children in Nature Collaborative.  I plan to continue learning new techniques that will inspire kids to embrace their natural surroundings.

I am proud to be part of the I Love A Clean San Diego family and hope to see you at a cleanup or presentation soon!

Carroll Canyon Cleanup, a Site Captain’s Perspective on Creek to Bay

Today’s blog post comes from our Marketing Intern, Christina, who fearlessly led a cleanup site as part of the Creek to Bay Cleanup. 

This year’s Creek to Bay Cleanup was a huge success thanks to all of our hard working staff, interns and volunteers! We’ve all had time to exchange stories and reflect on our experiences, and I thought I’d take this opportunity to share my experience with all of you. This was not only my first Creek to Bay, but my first ever event with I Love A Clean San Diego, so I was excited and a bit nervous as I served as a site captain for Carroll Canyon.

Upon arrival, I noticed how steep the descent to the actual canyon was and felt a bit intimidated knowing I was about to lead groups of students and cub scouts down the treacherous hill through mounds of poison oak. Some of the volunteers blew me away with their incredible enthusiasm and dedication. For example, one man who was volunteering with John Deer Water, showed up at 8:30, which was half an hour before the event even began, grabbed a trash bag and headed down the canyon straight away. He told me this was his third cleanup, and a well-seasoned veteran wastes no time waiting for others. Throughout the duration of the event he made 4 complete trips into the abyss and back with two full black bags of trash each time. Everyone was supremely impressed with his dedication and persistence.

Volunteers in canyons are an essential part of the Creek to Bay Cleanup

Trekking alongside the creek that runs through the canyon, we were all very surprised to find such a large amount of debris. There isn’t much surrounding the area so it was odd to find so many beer cans, clothing, plastic bins, and Red Box sleeves. How exactly do you watch DVDs in a canyon anyway? At one point, two Cub Scouts were seen in the distance lugging a giant rusted tent and canopy up the steep hill, we all ran to their aid but they refused help because they wanted to be able to say they hauled it all the way to the top themselves. The boys won our competition to see who could collect the most garbage. They were thrilled to receive free passes to the Birch Aquarium. After all of the Carroll Canyon volunteers battled their way through the terrain for three hours, we all felt a little more connected to each other and a little scared we had all contracted poison oak.

After everyone had parted ways, I couldn’t help but feel so proud of our community for giving up so much time to come hang out with me and help make San Diego a bit cleaner, healthier and more beautiful. I look forward to working I Love A Clean San Diego’s future events, and we all hope to see YOU there as well!

Creek to Bay Photo Contest – Time to Vote!

On your mark….get set….VOTE!

For the second year in a row, I Love A Clean San Diego has teamed up with Sony Electronics to host a Creek to Bay photo contest. We asked volunteers at this year’s cleanup to best capture the “spirit of service” and send a photo to be entered into our contest. We received a ton of wonderful photos, so it was hard to narrow it down, but we did! We are so lucky to have such hardworking and enthusiastic volunteers!  Our top 5 entries have been posted on our Facebook page and it’s up to you to decide who the winner is! All you need to do is ‘Like’ our page and vote for your favorite photo by liking it, it’s as simple as that! Voting is open until Thursday, May 9^th and the winner will be announced Friday, May 10^th.  This year’s winner will be receiving a new Sony Cyber-shot camera!

Take a look at our Top 5 photos from this year’s contest (in no particular order):

The Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve sure looks a lot cleaner thanks to the help of this young lady!

Working hard or hardly working? These guys show how fun volunteering can be; you never know what you’ll find!

This Girl Scout Troop had a very successful time cleaning up La Jolla Shores! Check out all of that trash! Impressive job!

This 12 year old Boy Scout is saving marine wildlife one piece of trash at a time! Way to go!

These volunteers show what team work looks like at the Chollas Earthlab site!

Blast from the Past – the beginnings of classroom education

Did you know that I Love A Clean San Diego is approaching its 60^th Anniversary? While we’ve been around since 1954, it wasn’t until the 1980′s that ILACSD started going into classrooms to do environmental presentations. In 1982, I Love A Clean San Diego’s Education Program put a call out looking for volunteers to help give presentations to schools. 31 years later, the department has grown to be quite a success! In 2012 alone, our Education Department gave 531 presentations to more than 37,000 San Diegans!

Not familiar with what exactly the Education Program here at ILACSD does? Allow me to fill you in! The Education Department is split into three parts: presentations, community events, and programs. Our presence at community events continues to grow each year. ILACSD staff often attend events such as festivals, fairs, and farmer’s markets to educate the general public about the environment. Presentations and programs are usually given in schools to students and younger children.

The primary goal of the Education Department is to positively impact the local community by informing them about the environment and how to reduce their ecological footprint. Our staff focus on providing quality education through specific issues such as: waste reduction, recycling, resource conservation, proper disposal of hazardous waste, as well as storm water pollution.  Storm water pollution is a particularly interesting topic to discuss with children and adults. Why? Storm water drains are commonly spotted on our streets and what people don’t realize is that everything that flows into a storm drain (whether it’s water or trash) goes straight into our oceans! Storm drains are not filtered before going into the sea like the sewer system is. The Department also emphasizes how important it is to pick up even the tiniest pieces of trash off the streets.  Once trash is pushed into the ocean, marine animals mistake it for food. During a presentation, staff show students a jar filled with different types of common plastics pieces (toothbrush, umbrella handle, bottle cap, comb, lighter) and then learn it’s the stomach contents found in a deceased Albatross (a type of seabird).

One of the many visual aids that ILACSD educators take to presentations, this contains albatross stomach contents

Just look how far Education Department has come since 1954! From looking to volunteers to help with the program to making a difference one presentation at a time! If you would like more information on our programs, presentations, or are interested in having us come to a community event please contact our Education Coordinator, Erika Bjorkquist at ebjorkquist@cleansd.org. Thank you to all of our San Diegan’s for continued support! Here’s to another 60 years!

Meet Billy Paul: Protector of Creatures Big and Small

Billy Paul, Creek to Bay Site Captain at Rose Creek

Meet Billy Paul, Creek to Bay Site Captain and a tireless advocate for our environment.

For more than 40 years, Billy Paul has been an environmental activist involved with many environmental projects in San Diego. He also rescues beagles. He works tirelessly to protect the natural environment and the unique animals that call San Diego home, particularly in the areas around Ocean Beach and along Rose Creek. A Vietnam veteran and former Marine, Billy has been involved in everything from cleanups at Dog Beach, to saving Famosa Slough from being drained by developers back in the 1970s. When he first got involved in cleanups, areas like Famosa Slough were being used by locals as dumping grounds for everything from shopping carts and even cars! Working with other dedicated citizens, Billy helped revitalize that area and started to notice a trend – the cleaner the area was, the less trash people would dump there over the course of a year. He says, “I’ve come to realize that if people don’t see trash there, they won’t dump stuff there!” which is one of the reasons he believes cleanups like Creek to Bay are so important.

Several years ago, Billy started volunteering at Rose Creek, an often overlooked waterway that runs along the eastern boundary of Pacific Beach and behind Mission Bay High School. He became a site captain for that site alongside his friend, Karin Zirk, who is also a member of the Friends of Rose Creek. Not only have they removed tons of trash from the creek, they even convinced Campland by the Bay to host an ice cream social after cleanups, providing volunteers with a small token of appreciation after a long morning of work! Thank you Campland!

The hidden gem that is Rose Creek.

Billy now lives in Clairemont where he serves as Chair of the Balboa Avenue Citizens Advisory Committee which has helped to revitalize the Balboa Avenue area and make it safer for drivers, pedestrians, and even the animals that call the area home. Billy’s dedication to protecting the environment, the people, and the animals in his local community are evident in the many ways he volunteers his time. It’s evident that nothing will stop Billy Paul from working tirelessly for a clean environment! He was even scheduled for hip replacement surgery this month that would have had him wheelchair bound at Creek to Bay. Fortunately the surgery was pushed back, although he said that he would have been out there regardless. Lucky for us, Billy will be fully mobile at Rose Creek for the Creek to Bay Cleanup and sharing his stories and experiences with the volunteers who share his enthusiasm for preserving the natural habitats near their home.

Spotlight On: Aimee Edmonds, Creek to Bay site captain

Join Aimee Edmonds and her family as volunteers for this year’s Creek to Bay Cleanup, and help protect our coast!

When Aimee Edmonds’ daughter’s American Heritage Girls troop chose our Creek to Bay Cleanup as their spring service project, she had no idea she would soon be bringing together not only the troop, but also her church, to clean up the area around their local elementary school. While looking around the Creek to Bay website for a cleanup site for the AHG troop Aimee said, “I quickly narrowed my search to Mira Mesa on the Creek to Bay website and there discovered ILACSD’s outstanding need for a Creek to Bay site in none other than…Mira Mesa!”

Mira Mesa, and specifically Hage Elementary School, is where Aimee and her family attend Newbreak Church, so she knew that the area was in need of not only litter pickup, but landscaping and painting projects. Aimee immediately reached out to our Community Events Department and signed up as the site captain for Mira Mesa. As the site captain, Aimee will receive training and supplies for her site from ILACSD and then will lead the volunteers the day of Creek to Bay.

When we asked Aimee why she though events like the Creek to Bay Cleanup were important she said,

“A clean San Diego is a visible expression that we as residents responsibly care about and appreciate our community where we live and breathe…Serving others is cross-generational and cross-cultural as it builds character in our youth, adolescents, and adults. The next generation is taught how to be good stewards of the things in which we are entrusted.”

Site captains like Aimee are the heart and soul of the Creek to Bay Cleanup, we could not mobilize 6,000+ volunteers at 92 sites across the county – all on one day – without them! Aimee says, “I look forward to bringing people together to help meet real needs at Hage Elementary. We want to show their administration, staff, teachers, students and families we value them as we come alongside them.”

Thanks Aimee and all our other site captains for the great work that you do as an extension of the ILACSD staff!

Do you know what to “Doo”?

Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Environmental Educator, Monica Rosquillas!

Have you ever walked down the street and seen the evidence that man’s best friend had been there as well? Although most dog owners do the right thing and pick up after their pets, the truth is that many don’t, and with the hundreds of thousands of dogs in San Diego County that means more pollution for our watersheds.  Pet waste carries bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can threaten the health of humans and animals, and that’s why it’s very important that we always “doo” the right thing and “scoop the poop”. Pet waste that isn’t picked up can get carried by rainwater into storm drains. Since our storm water does not get treated, the bacteria- rich dog waste will likely end up in our rivers and eventually in the ocean.

I Love A Clean San Diego has partnered with the County of San Diego Watershed Protection Program to encourage San Diego dog owners to commit to picking up their dog’s waste. We’ll be attending various community events throughout San Diego County and surveying dog owners on how often they pick up their pet’s waste on their property. Results from the 2011 surveys show that 70% of rural San Diego dog owners are already doing the right thing, and by participating in these events we hope that that number will grow. And why wouldn’t dog owners want to do the right thing? Responsible pet waste management keeps yards and feet clean, and also protects the quality of our region’s creeks, lakes, and beaches.

If you happen to see us at a community event around San Diego, please stop by our booth and sign the pledge to commit to picking up your pet’s waste to protect our watersheds!

What does Spring mean to you?

Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Marketing Intern, Christina Etchebarren!

Spring is in the air, and this week it’s finally here! This season brings  extended daylight, rising temperatures, and the rebirth of flora and  fauna. The word equinox comes from the Latin words meaning “equal  night”, the name explains the time of the year when the day and  night are of equal length.  The vernal equinox signals the  commencement of the Earth’s rejuvenation in the Northern Hemisphere.

Spring is the time when hibernating bears, hedgehogs and bumblebees  emerge from their hiding places to stretch their sleepy legs. The days  are a flutter with renewed signs of life everywhere you turn and the  spirit of starting anew begins to take hold. Spring has been  celebrated throughout human history as a time of organic and spiritual  rebirth following the “dying of the year” in winter.

Spring cleaning may hold different meanings to different folks, to  some it may mean clearing out stale energy from their lives, and to others it may quite literally mean cleaning out their cluttered  garage. Deep cleaning around the house can sometimes pose a daunting  challenge, I remember when my mom started mentioning our spring  cleaning day I would immediately start think of reasonable excuses to  duck out.

Maybe you’re an annual spring cleaner, and your accumulation of junk isn’t as daunting, but maybe you have put it off a few years, in that case spring cleaning this year may mean many hours of hard labor.

We at ILACSD know that it’s sometimes hard to distinguish between stuff that needs to be thrown away and things that can be recycled when it all looks like a huge heap in front of you. WasteFreeSD.org has been recently revamped in order to make recycling difficult items a whole lot easier. Whether you don’t know how to properly dispose of toxic materials, or simply need to know where the closest place to drop off your leftover paint, motor oil etc. the website will help you take your unwanted materials where they need to go.

As we step in to spring time, embrace the warm fresh air and try to give ourselves a fresh clean slate, keep in mind improper disposal of many household items can have devastating effects on the environment. As a part of our ongoing effort to keep San Diego clean, beautiful & healthy, we want you to keep WasteFreeSD.org on hand to help you through this years’ spring cleaning, and all of your future.