Education Programs
Clean Earth Challenge
I Love A Clean San Diego is proud to announce that it has teamed up with Honda Dealers of San Diego County to present the Clean Earth Challenge; a competition being offered to students at eight area high schools beginning April 15th. Contestants are challenged to come up with new and easy ways to make their communities greener.
For more information and to see if your school is a participant, download the event flyer. View complete rules of participation here.
Ocean Day Kids’ Adopt-A-Beach Clean Up
Each Spring, ILACSD partners with the California Coastal Commission to coordinate San Diego County’s Ocean Day Kids’ Adopt-A-Beach Clean Up event. This program provides interactive presentations about pollution prevention and marine ecosystems to thousands of students. Students are then invited to participate in a field trip to the beach to take part in a clean up event and an aerial art formation in the sand.
The aerial art formation sends a larger message to the San Diego community that clean beaches are a vital part our livelihood. We also want to ensure the beaches are respected. The event teaches students the dangers of pollution in our marine ecosystems and the important role they play in helping keep our beaches clean.
The video from The Malibu Foundation for Environmental Education on the left shows the process of creating a human aerial art piece.
2007 Ocean Day Kids’ Adopt-A-Beach Clean Up
This year’s event involved 1,110 students, teachers, and volunteers who removed 245 pounds of trash from Silver Strand State Beach! The image on the right shows the progress of the aerial art from a bird's eye perspective.
To learn how your school can get involved or to donate, please contact our Education Coordinator.
2007 Ocean Day Kids’ Adopt-A-Beach Clean Up Press Release
May 15, 2007
For immediate release
San Diego Students to Join International Beach Cleanup Efforton Ocean Day, Tuesday, May 22nd
Afterwards, students will take their “stand in the sand” by forming a giant whale image and “PROTECT” message visible from the air.
SAN DIEGO, CA – Over 6,500 kids throughout the state will commemorate Ocean Day at the 14th Annual Kids’ Adopt-A-Beach Cleanup by taking part in seven cleanups all along the California coast, stretching from San Diego to Humboldt County. This year, California students will be joining counterparts in Mexico, British Columbia, and Alaska as they all form giant whale images to create a “human whale migration” traveling up the west coast of North America.
Locally, over 900 students from San Diego will be cleaning up Silver Strand Beach in Coronado. After the cleanup, they will take part in the aerial art exhibition. Students will form a design spelling out “PROTECT” with an image of a grey whale, to dramatize the plight of whales and the world’s oceans. The art formation is designed to send a message to stop litter and other pollutants from reaching the sea where it harms the whales and other marine animals.
I Love A Clean San Diego (ILACSD), a non-profit environmental education organization, is coordinating the program for the San Diego region. “The Kid’s Beach Cleanup is an impressive program. After learning about sources of ocean pollution, children immediately have the opportunity to take action, clean the beach, and send a powerful message of stewardship to the residents of San Diego County,” said Pauline Martinson, Executive Director of ILACSD.
Patrick Kruer, Chair of the California Coastal Commission, said, "This program teaches students about the threats to our oceans including pollution and how to prevent it. The children are sending out a message that the ocean and the animals that live there are in trouble due to human activities and that we all need to step up and help.” The Coastal Commission coordinates the program statewide. Threats to whales include marine debris, warming ocean temperatures, the use of sonar, and hunting. The International Whaling Commission is currently holding its annual meeting in Alaska to discuss an increase in commercial whaling limits.
A diversified environmental education organization that operates throughout San Diego County, I Love A Clean San Diego (ILACSD) offers a broad range of expertise in public education and outreach, event coordination, and community relations. ILACSD works to promote countywide awareness of environmental issues including resource conservation, waste reduction and recycling, community enhancement and pollution prevention.
The public can get involved in cleaning beaches and inland areas year-round by calling I Love A Clean San Diego at (619) 291-0103, extension 3003 or log on to www.adoptsd.org for more information. Most beaches and inland parks within the county of San Diego can be adopted. Volunteers commit to cleaning the beach three times per year. Another opportunity to help clean your community is Coastal Cleanup Day, which will be held this year on Saturday, September 15th from 9 a.m. to noon throughout California. For more information check out www.cleanupday.org
The Malibu Foundation for Environmental Education and the California Coastal Commission started the annual event in Los Angeles in 1994. With funding from the Whale Tail License Plate, this program expanded to San Francisco in 1998. The program focuses on reaching children in underserved and inland schools. Prior to the cleanup, the program includes a series of school presentations providing information about the importance of the ocean and how the students’ actions affect it. The presentations cover how the storm drain system connects neighborhoods in the urban environment to the beaches and oceans and addresses the need for recycling and litter reduction.
The California Coastal Commission is the statewide coordinator of the Kids’ Adopt-A-Beach Cleanup, the year-round Adopt-A-Beach program, and Coastal Cleanup Day. All of these programs are funded by the generous support of the Whale Tail License Plate Fund. Over 168,000 plates have been sold since 1996, raising $10.4 million dollars for marine education and protection. For more information about the California Coastal Commission’s programs and how to buy a Whale Tail Plate, call (800) COAST-4U or visit www.coastforyou.org.
List of Participating Schools:
- Emory Elementary – South Bay Union School District
- Harborside Elementary – Chula Vista Elementary School District
- Harborside School – Downtown Private School
- Imperial Beach Elementary – South Bay Union School District
- John A. Otis Elementary – National School District
- Mueller Charter School – Chula Vista Elementary School District
- Oneonta Elementary – South Bay Union School District
- Rosebank Elementary – Chula Vista Elementary School District
- Silver Strand Elementary – Coronado Union School District
- Vista Square Elementary – Chula Vista Elementary School District
Download the press release here
A special thanks
For our sponsors and donors from the 13th Annual Ocean Day Kids’ Adopt-A-Beach Clean Up:
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