North Coast Cleanup reduces litter, increases awareness
Santa Cruz, CA – Save Our Shores (SOS) announced the results from the inaugural North Coast Cleanup Day for Sunday June 22. SOS hosted five cleanups and, with the help of 36 volunteers, prevented 421 pounds of trash and debris from polluting our waterways! The most common items found were Cigarette butts and food wrappers. Volunteers also found a tent frame, a large pair of purple underwear and over 30 Styrofoam plates at Bonny Doon Beach
North Coast Cleanup Day was established to restore Davenport Main, Panther, Bonny Doon, 4 Mile and Shark Tooth beaches—all of which are consistently trashed by parties, camping and heavy foot traffic. The next North Coast Cleanup Days will take place from 9-11 a.m. on July 27 and August 24.
SOS is grateful to the Diversity Center for participating in a Rainbow Coalition Cleanup at Panther Beach as part of the inaugural event. 30 dedicated volunteers from the center helped collect 125 pounds of trash and debris.
“We were so happy to have the Diversity Center join us. As a group they removed 125 pounds of waste off Panther Beach, that was the dirtiest cleanup site of the morning,” said Marina Maze, SOS Program Coordinator. This beach is consistently hit with parties and heavy foot traffic during warm summer weekends. Sharks Tooth Beach came in second with 82 pounds.
“It’s appalling I had no idea Panther Beach would be so full of trash. It was really surprising,” said Neva Healer, volunteer at the Diversity Center.
Save Our Shores wishes to thank its many partners, including the Diversity Center, State Parks and Santa Cruz County, for their assistance in making North Coast Cleanup Day a huge success.
For more information, contact Rachel Kippen, program manager at Save Our Shores at (808) 721-1136 or rachel@saveourshores.org. Visit saveourshores.org.
Photo Captions:
Photo 3: A large amount of Styrofoam Plates found at Bonny Doon Beach during the first North Coast Cleanup Day.
Photo 4: Save Our shores Sanctuary Steward, Jim Laske, poses with the total haul collected from Bonny Doon Beach.