International Coastal Cleanup Day

September 25 is International Coastal Cleanup Day. This year marks the 25^th anniversary of the day that is dedicated to picking up trash and debris from coastlines and waterways all over the world. Last year, hundreds of thousands of volunteers picked up over a million plastic bags and enough picnic items to host 100,000 people. Last year, our Green Committee in Sacramento partnered with the California Arts Council to draw special attention to the occasion and host an art contest for our employees’ children. It was so successful, that we are doing it again this year.

The Ocean Conservancy leads the international effort. Government agencies and non-profit organizations participate by identifying opportunities for volunteers to spend a day cleaning up beaches, lakes, riverbeds, and waterways. In California, our state Coastal Commission has information about events planned around the state and how to join the effort. This is a wonderful opportunity to draw attention to your greening efforts and involve employees in active participating to improve the environment in their communities. The art contest we host gives notice to everyone about the upcoming day and helps teach youth K-12 about the importance of protecting and preserving our natural resources. 

The art contest theme this year is “Oceans and Wetlands”. In our announcement released the middle of August, we provided a list of websites for parents and older contestants from which to obtain information and inspiration for their artistic creations. We specifically included resources about the Gulf oil spill and environmental clean-up efforts underway:

http://ceres.ca.gov/wetlands/ 

http://ceres.ca.gov/ocean/

http://www.geoplatform.gov/gulfresponse/ 

http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/

http://www.teachablemoment.org/elementary/oilspill.html

http://www.oceanconservancy.org/site/PageServer?pagename=home