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Volunteers Show Up to Clean City Beaches

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Contributed by: Rosie Ornelas on 9/24/2007

Nearly 600 volunteers showed up at three Ventura beaches and removed close to 1,000 pounds of trash and 300 pounds of recyclables on Saturday, September 15th to participate in the 23rd annual Coastal Cleanup Day. From families with babies in backpacks to groups of high school and college students, volunteers joined together to clean up seven miles of our coastline at Seaward Beach, San Buenaventura State Beach, and Surfers' Knoll.

The San Buenaventura State Beach had the largest turnout with 260 volunteers. However, volunteers at Surfers' Knoll removed the most amount of trash, gathering over 700 pounds of trash and recyclables both on land and in the water. Providing critical assistance in removing large or heavy items at Surfers' Knoll were members of the Gold Coast 4x4 Association.

Members of the California Kayak Friends ventured out in kayaks and retrieved trash from the waters' edge in the rocks. Paula Chavez, President of the California Kayak Friends, said "What I found really cool was the tallying of the trash we picked up at the end of the morning! We logged on a sheet the stuff we picked up and sent it off to the coordinators of this event. We were all amazed at what we found and smiling, said 'When's the next event?' We realized we'll never be the same....we'll always be looking for and picking up trash wherever we paddle or walk!"

Steve Nardi, a marine biology and natural history teacher at Thousand Oaks High School, has been bringing students to Surfers' Knoll for eight years. "I promote CCD because I feel it's a worthwhile event that helps my students to gain a better understanding and appreciation of our local coastal and natural open space environments. The reward for me is seeing that my students get the bigger picture that our different environments make up one large interconnected system and what happens in one affects/impacts the others. "

Coastal Cleanup Day, coordinated by the California Coastal Commission, in partnership with hundreds of non-profit groups, cities and counties throughout the state, is an annual event held on the third Saturday of September. This year's event netted over 11,000 pounds of trash from coastal and inland sites in Ventura County alone. Statewide, it is estimated that 50,000 volunteers participated in cleanups at 750 coastal and inland sites collecting over 800,000 pounds of trash.

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