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Adopt a Beach in the News Again!

Thanks to Laura Ferguson, Public Information Officer for the City of San Clemente, Adopt a Beach was in the news yet again! This time the article appeared in the City Magazine and it included a photo of one of our Adopt a Beach teams! To read the article and see a fun photo of San Clemente Green's Clean Team in action, click here.

We even made the Mayor's Column ("Keeping a Clean, Green City") in the April 3-9 edition of the San Clemente Times http://www.sanclementetimes.com/uploads/SCT_20080403.pdf

Another one of our Adopt a Beach teams, the San Clemente Sunrise Rotary Club, also got some local press. Check out the May 8-14 edition of the San Clemente Times (pg 4).

http://www.sanclementetimes.com/
What a fun group! Vernon & I had the opportunity to spend the morning with them and further promote the Adopt a Beach program last week when we presented "Trouble in Paradise - Taking Action Against the Trashing of Our Oceans" during the club's early morning breakfast meeting.

What a Mess!

Speaking of taking action against the trashing of our oceans, here is a photo sent in by the Miller/Woods team. It shows the results of team member Isobel Pelham's clean up efforts on April 19. This hodge-podge of plastics, paper, cigarette butts, clothing, and other yucky things came from Section #6 (Mariposa ramp to Linda Lane Underpass).

Keeping this stuff off the beach and trail and out of the ocean is so important. To all of you adopt a Beach teams who are keeping your commitments and actively out there making a difference twice a month (and some of you even more frequently!) THANK YOU - THANK YOU - THANK YOU!

Totals for April Still Out

Believe it or not, I am still getting completed Data Sheets sent in from April so I don't have the totals ready to share with you all just yet. If anyone still has data for April - please fax it to me ASAP (before end of day Wednesday 5/14) to make sure your team's info gets added. If all goes as planned I will have the April Report ready for distribution by the end of this week.

Comments Welcome

It's fun to read your comments & I appreciate the ones that are starting to come in. They not only confirm for me that the comment feature is working, they also confirm that the blog is getting read! Keep em coming...

That's all I have for now...have a great week! - Sherry

San Clemente Earth Day Celebration 2008!

Don't let the picture fool you - this was probably the only time we sat down all day! The Earth Day Event was a whirlwind of activity - team members stopping by to say hello, dropping off forms and picking up supplies. To all of you who dropped by - thank you! I hope you enjoyed the event as much as we did. (By the way, the handsome man in this photo is my husband Vernon. From working the "front lines" handing out information and t-shirts to providing "behind-the-scenes" technical expertise, he is a great champion for the Adopt a Beach program!)

More Appreciation
I also want to recognize the following individuals who helped out at the Watershed Task Force tent through out the day:

• Briana Denney
• Andrea Toscano De Souza
• Nanci Mavar
• Bill Hart
• Ron & Melisa Perugini

TWELVE (12) MORE TEAMS SIGN UP!
By the end of the day we had 12 more teams signed up:
Our newest adopters include:

• Roderiguez Family
• Team Austin
• Boatright Family
• Riley Girls
• Ogden Bunch
• Jefferson Family
• Eco Systers or Team Mar-Brillo (final name to be determined)
• Ollie's Klean Kooks
• Fresh Ocean
• Zeweski Girls
• Cole Surfboards

Team Name Change

The Hoffman Family team name has been changed to Revenge of the Ronanites

Nine (9) Sections Are Now MAXED OUT!
Nine of the 22 sections of beach have reached the 3 team limit and are closed to further adoption.

List of Locations and Teams
To see an updated list of teams by location click here

Data Collection Totals for March
To see a summary report of activity and items collected during the month of March, click here


Coordination of Schedules between Teams
Now that we are doubling and tripling up on teams per section, it has become clear that there needs to be a centralized way for teams to connect with each other and coordinate clean up schedules. It is also clear that my plate is already too full to take on this additional level of coordination. Fortunately, Briana Denney, another Adopt a Beach volunteer, is stepping up to take this on. Yeah! So please be patient a little while longer, hold off on sending me your email requests for contact information, and expect to hear from Briana in the very near future.


Supply Pick Up

For any team leaders who did not make it to the Earth Day and still need to get their supplies, the next opportunity will be Tuesday May 15th, 6:30pm - immediately following the Watershed Task Force Meeting - in front of the Community Development Building at 910 Calle Negocio. I'll plan on sticking around for a few minutes after the meeting. Just look for the blue Prius filled with Adopt a Beach t-shirts, buckets and calipers!

CALL FOR COMMENTS

What do you think of the Blog so far? Do you have an idea or suggestion that you feel like sharing with me and the other Adopt a Beach Team Leaders? Then please, let your voice be heard!

To post a comment:

• Navigate to the end of the post that you wish to comment on.
• Click on the "# comments" or "post a comment" link
• Type in your comment in the Leave Your Comment section
• Choose your appropriate identity from the Choose An Identity Section (see hint below) *
• Click on the Publish Your Comment field (important step - don't forget!) **

* HINT: Most people will want to choose the Name/URL identity where you can leave your nickname or favorite internet handle. There's no need to sign up for anything.

**NOTE: You won't see the comment posted right away - it will first come to me as the Blog Moderator. This is to keep unwanted spam out of our blog space. Once I review & approve it will post.

New Record Set for Beach Adoptions & More Exciting News

RECORD BREAKING NUMBER OF BEACH ADOPTIONS!
Great News! As of this week, ALL 22 sections of the beach/trail have been adopted! The interest has been so great that some sections now have 2 or even 3 teams assigned, with a total of 32 teams to date. According to Bill Hart, President of the Watershed Task Force, this is the greatest number of sign ups in the history of the program. Thank you all for helping to make this happen! I will continue to take requests until each section is "maxed out" at 3 per team. Our goal is to someday have enough coverage that the beaches are cleaned on a weekly basis. This is a big step in that direction.

SPECIAL RECOGNITION
In addition to all of the teams who signed up, there are a few other people who played a big part in making all this happen. Gold Sea Stars go out to...

- Norb Garrett and Fred Swegles for providing great press in our local media. The front page article and photo on the front page of the Sun Post News really got things rolling! I estimate that it was responsible for 90% of the recent inquiries and subsequent adoptions.

- Ken Nielsen for providing the photo from the Kick Off event that accompanied the articles.

- Nanci Mavar for organizing the Kick Off, ordering the clean up supplies, and being the overall champion of the program since its inception.

- Eric Norton for taking all those phone calls from potential adopters and forwarding the contact information to me for follow-up.

REQUEST FOR PHOTOS
Speaking of press, I'm collaborating with Laura Fergeson on an upcoming article for the City Magazine. We'd like to include a photo of a volunteer team in action cleaning up their section of the beach/trail. This is another opportunity to promote the program and showcase the great work that you are doing. So don't be shy! Team Captains, take your camera and your creativity to "your" beach with you this weekend and send me your best stuff (by email attachment of course!) The deadline for the article is April 14th so I will need your photos ASAP. Although only one photo will be selected for the article, I plan to post the other photos on this blog.

EARTH DAY CELEBRATION (Saturday 4/19)
The Watershed Task Force will be sponsoring a booth at the upcoming Earth Day Celebration at Parque Del Mar. I will be at the booth promoting the Adopt a Beach program from 10:00am to 2:00pm. I am thinking that this will also be a perfect opportunity for those teams who have signed up since the kick off to pick up cleaning supplies and t-shirts (one set per team). Please stop by to say hello and pick up your bucket of goodies!

More Teams Sign Up! / EARTH HOUR celebration

Hi there!

Just checking in to say hello and to give you an update on our Adopt a Beach program.

TEN (10) MORE TEAMS
The front page write up in the Sun Post Times really got people's attention. The phones have been ringing off the hook. It seems that there are many many people out there like us who care about the environment and want to pitch in to keep the trails and beaches clean. We now have ten new team members joining us in our efforts, and I still have several more people to call back. Exciting!


Wicks Team is ON IT!
I received the first data collection sheet this week from the Wicks team. In addition to the usual trash of cigarette butts (139 of them!) styrofoam (230 little pieces) etc., they also found treasure! In this case the treasure was the people they encountered. One of them (Mark) was so inspired by what they were doing that he rushed home to contact me and adopted his own stretch of sand. A gold sea star to the Wicks team for great follow through and positive PR.

EARTH Hour
This Saturday (March 29th) we all have an opportunity to participate in an exciting global event on a local level. Gary and Laurie Headrick, founders of San Clemente Green, are the organizers. I'm happy to say that they are also part of the Watershed Taskforce and leaders of two Adopt a Beach teams! Put on a green sweater or hoodie and join us on Del Mar tomorrow night from 8:00 - 9:00pm. For more information check out the articles in the San Clemente Times and the San Clemente Sun Post News:
www.sanclementetimes.com www.ocregister.com/community/sun_post_news

That's all the news for now. Thanks for all that you do! - Sherry

2008 Kickoff!

Sunday, March 16, 2008

2008 Kickoff!
Hi there! Let me start off by saying how much fun I had meeting all of you at the Kickoff event. There was so much positive energy on the pier that morning with prior team members reuniting and new people coming on board. Lots of stories and ideas got shared over the coffee and muffins! Ever since that day, I've been pondering on how we might keep that spirit of camaraderie and collaboration going...

Fast forward to Saturday - I was out enjoying the sunshine when Aha! the idea came to me to create this blog for us. Will it do the trick? Time will tell. Also, I am counting on each of YOU to share with me (and each other) your ideas and opinions. It is easy to do - just click on the comment feature at the end of the posting and let your "voice" be heard!

Other items:

FORMS: I'm still waiting to get completed Registration and/or Volunteer Release forms from several teams. Please fax those in to 949-481-1847 without further delay!

PUBLICITY: The Kick Off was covered by our local papers (Sun Post News and San Clemente Times). In case you missed it, here are the links:
www.sanclementetimes.com (March 13-19 edition - bottom of page 4)
www.ocregister.com/community/sun_post_news (Friday, March 14 edition - Front Page!)

APPRECIATION: Once again, on behalf of the Watershed Task force, I want to shout out a huge THANK YOU to each of you for showing up and stepping up as good stewards of our precious coastline!

That's all for now - Enjoy! - Sherry