Monterey Beach Clean-Up

After learning about oceans, the importance of keeping them clean and healthy, and their own connection to the marine environment even in the Central Valley, approximately 175 students from Tioga Middle School in Fresno helped out the seashore over 150 miles from home-- at a large beach cleanup and dune planting event on Municipal Beach on the morning of June 5^th. Tioga students were selected for this cleanup event by participating in a writing contest in their Language Arts classes. Students with the top five essays in each class were awarded permission slips to attend this event. Their essay’s focused on pollution in the ocean and how it effects our environment.   

Fresno Chaffee Zoo organized the event and gave presentations to the youth in their schools prior to June 5^th.  Kids’ Ocean Day, honoring World Oceans Day on June 8th, is being organized statewide by the California Coastal Commission.  The Monterey event is part of the 19^th Annual Kids’ Adopt-a-Beach Cleanup, a series of Kids’ Ocean Day Adopt-A-Beach Cleanups at six beaches up and down the California coast and one in Marineland, Florida.  The event for Fresno students involved removing litter from the beach as well as installing native plants on sand dunes to filter polluted runoff before it reaches the ocean.

Fresno’s Chaffee Zoo is running the program locally by giving presentations at the school site and organizing the June 5th event. “The Fresno Chaffee Zoo Education Staff is grateful for this opportunity to have Central Valley students participate in a coastal beach cleanup project. This grant funded program provides a special opportunity for some of our children to learn more about how humans impact our natural world and also about stewardship behaviors and actions. Participating in this Monterey beach cleanup and dune planting gives these students a special connection to the ocean. We hope this hands-on experience empowers them and helps them understand that each person can make a difference in keeping our earth clean.” said Adrienne Castro, Director of Education, Fresno Chaffee Zoo.

“These kids are like modern-day knights in shining armor,” said Mary Shallenberger, Chair of the California Coastal Commission.   “They are defending our ocean from marine debris and other forms of pollution that harm marine life.  I’m so proud of them that they took this day to go forward into battle with everyday trash to keep it out of the sea.  It makes me optimistic that these young people will continue the crusade to keep our coast and ocean clean.”  The Coastal Commission coordinates the program statewide and provides financial support from the Whale Tail License Plate Fund.

Fresno Chaffee Zoo provides environmental education programs to visiting students from the Central San Joaquin Valley. As stated in the mission statement, “Fresno Chaffee Zoo inspires wonder of our natural world, provides an engaging learning environment, and creates a passion for conservation.” The zoo allows students to come to one location and learn about animals in a variety of habitats.

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 serving Central Valley children in 2001. The program focuses on reaching children in underserved and inland schools.  Prior to the cleanup, the program includes a school presentation providing information about the importance of the ocean and how the students’ actions affect it. 

The California Coastal Commission is the statewide coordinator of the Kids’ Ocean Day 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 205,000 plates have been sold since 1996, raising $19 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.