Stand Up To Trash
PROGRAMS
Yoga, Beach Cleanup and Lunch & Learn
Yoga, Beach Cleanup and Lunch & Learn People are adding yoga to beach cleanups as a way to combine environmental activism with mindfulness and physical well-being. This allows participants to engage in yoga and meditation before cleaning up the beach, promoting a sense of balance, stress relief and a deeper connection to nature. It also helps raise awareness about environmental issues and the importance of protecting our beaches and oceans. Stand Up To Trash, in partnership with the Ocean Institute, hosts beach cleanups in Dana Point Harbor to promote cleaner environments, educational awareness, and community empowerment against the pollution crisis. These cleanups are unique with both land and water options. Kayaks and stand up paddle boards are available for free for participants to remove trash from the harbor in a new and enjoyable way. The cleanups are also gamified with prizes for biggest catch, smallest catch, and weirdest find to promote a fun and more engaging experience to rather hard and dirty work. Cleanup events are then coupled with a free 30 minute Lunch and Learn program for all participants. Lunch and Learn features a distinguished speaker to come and discuss various environmental topics related to a monthly theme. Monthly themes and speakers are inline with the National or International Days such as Earth Day, International Cleanup Day, World Oceans Day and America Recycles Day. If there isn’t an environmental day in that month we pick educational topics such as Marine Protected Areas, Watersheds, Shark Conservation, etc. The speaker gives a 20-30 minute interactive talk on their topic of expertise before lunch is offered to participants. Additionally, the speaker sticks around to meet and greet the community and answer any questionsThis is a unique opportunity for the community to learn and ask questions from local experts on issues prevalent in their own backyards. Stand Up To Trash cleanup events are a community based program with 13 local partners each month. In addition to the Ocean Institute and The City of Dana Point, the Dana Point Harbor Partners, Irvine Subaru, Coffee Importers, Captain Dave’s Whale Watching, Westwind Sailing, Killer Dana Surf Shop, Shaka Love, Custodians Of The Sea, Women's Sailing Association, Sign Lingo, and a local Subway also see the value in these cleanup and education efforts and donate their time and resources to perpetuate our cause.
Beach cleanup registrants and total participant numbers have been increasing every month since the start of this program (Nov 2020). Total beach cleanup participant numbers will be recorded and will indicate the spread of our community involvement.
Lunch & Learn attendees are counted and documented to indicate how many community members are being educated on environmental issues each month.
All trash collected through the cleanups is weighed and documented to show how much trash is being picked up by the community and saved from entering the ocean each month. These weights are also used in Stand Up To Trash educational messaging that even a clean, well maintained area like Dana Point Harbor can still accumulate trash, average weight between 150-200 lbs per month and contribute to the ocean pollution problem. The Ocean Institute uses this data for reporting as well.
Since the start of this program, people now come up and tell us they are using less plastic, picking up trash wherever they see it and adapting other ways to live more sustainably. Testimonials like, “Thank you for making it so easy to consistently contribute to the effort with monthly cleanups,” Or “I never knew picking up trash would be this much fun!” shows us the positive impacts that our program is having on the community. Providing a space for collective learning, camaraderie, and stewardship, we believe, is the first step to enacting change.
In 2023 we had 3,766 people remove 4,370 pounds of trash from the Beaches, the jetty, the parking lots, the hillsides, walkways throughout the harbor and the surrounding picnic areas! As well as San Clemente Beaches and upstream (community) areas.
Since our inception 11,123 pounds of trash and 8,573 people have attended.
Online Learning Speaker Series
Quarterly online speaker series for kids 8-18. Expand and broaden our reach to continue to provide free environmental education. We pride ourselves as being the only local nonprofit who offers free environmental education. We will reach out via webcasts to an audience that transcends the coastal communities. Our mission is to engage children to learn how our lives are linked to the health of the oceans, and once they learn of the connection, we believe they will be inspired to adopt new habits that will protect this valuable public resource.. Method: Zoom - We’ll start with hosting 100 participants. As we grow and expand our reach, we will need to add up to 500 participants. Zoom is a popular and convenient platform that will provide us with an easy way to track, ticket, recruit and market.
My favorite quote is from Maya Angelo, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know
better, do better.”
The Ocean Starts at Your Front Door
In addition to the local families, we will also be reaching out to and recruiting underserved school children who live in less prosperous neighborhoods. We regard the beach as a living classroom and we will invite them to come learn about the ocean and help contribute to its health and beauty. It’s always surprising to learn how many children who live more than ten miles from the beach have never been to the beach Setting and Day: Baby Beach (or Killer Dana) in the Dana Point Harbor. The school day will begin with a morning assembly and a briefing about sea safety. Educates students on essential topics including the water cycle, watersheds, gyres, entanglement, single use plastics, marine debris and its impact on all life. The program emphasizes the significant coverage of the Earth by the ocean and highlights its crucial role in providing us with air. Lunch After lunch the kids will grab their bags and embark on picking up trash. We can also show them proper and healthy ways to repeatedly bend down and pick up small objects. At the end we will have a discussion about the prevalence of particular trash items and speculate about where they come from and what can be done to limit the risk of their winding up in the ocean.
Budget - $2,000 a trip. The Ocean Starts at Your Front Door will teach the kids about the different ways trash travels and ends up in the ocean, the harmful effects of marine debris and how to prevent ocean pollution.
They'll learn about watersheds, tide pools and marine mammals, including the California Gray Whales.
We will provide take-home educational kits. The cardboard box kits will include experiments and educational mementos that will be reminders that beach clean up begins at home.
CONTACT
Stand Up To Trash
26921 Calle Maria
Capistrano Beach, California 92624
Vicki Patterson
Phone: 949-413-3586