Fish Don’t Smoke!!

Amazing and Inspiring are some of the many adjectives to describe our hugely Successful Hold on To Your Butt Beach Cleanup on April 18th!  Mother Earth is very happy!  The Hold On To Your Butt event on April 18th 2009 was a great success!  More than one hundred volunteers showed their support and attended this beach clean up event at the Newport Beach Pier.  
 
Around 14,000 Cigarette Butts were collected in under 2.5 hours.  Thanks to all the volunteers, these toxic and non-biodegradable pollutants were picked up off the Newport Beach pier, the beach, the boardwalk, and the surrounding storefronts.  These efforts were showcased and reported by a press team from Cal State Fullerton.  Councilman Steven Rosanky joined the volunteers and Earth Resource Foundation to show his continued support for the beach cleanup and help spread the knowledge about the smoking ban at the beaches in the city of Newport Beach.   
 
Many beach-goers’ attention was directed towards our effort to clean the beach.  The citizens of Newport Beach showed high amounts of support for the efforts being put into cleaning the beaches.  The volunteers were also very enthusiastic about the beach cleanup!  A young volunteer, a boy who was about 12 years old, picked up almost 800 cigarette butts by himself in a 2 hours period!  Many of the volunteers actually pointed out that most of the cigarette filters that were picked up came from the boardwalk area and from the storefronts right by the beach and that the amount of butts picked up off the sand was significantly less than before the ban on smoking on the beach was enacted. 
 
Special thanks to: 

  • Pacific Life for helping with setup and recruiting their employees 
  • Macys for sending their volunteers and their incredible One Good Turn Fundraiser supporting Earth Resource Youth Program
  • Woodbridge, Northwood, Corona Del Mar and Newport Harbor High Schools

Our incredible volunteers:

  • Cal State Fullerton: Katie, Alexis, Pat, Stephanie and Amy
  • UCI: Albert, Mariane, Chris, and Jae
  • And all your friends and family

All of our Speakers: 

  • Councilman Steve Rosansky  
  • Dr. Tom Novotny, San Diego State Public Health 
  • Jim Walker, President Orange County Tobacco Use Prevention Coalition

Our Exhibitors: 

  • Herm Perlmutter,  County of Orange 
  • Cass Spencer, City of Newport Beach 
  • Julie Bini, Inside the Outdoors 
  • Jennifer Hartman and Ron Steward, Orange County Interfaith Coalition for the Environment 

 

Oceans of Appreciation!!!!