In this E-Letter:
HTO Celebrates Coastal Cleanup Day with a Coastal Sweep!
September 21, 2019 -- Get Out and Do Something Good for the Ocean, it's Coastal Cleanup Day!
HTO Styrofoam Program Takes off!
Marcie’s Mermaids Swim for Heal the Ocean on Thursday Night, So Donate today!
HTO Hosts Celebration of Friends in Summerland!
The HTO 2019 Benefit is Here! Tickets Available Now!
Reflecting on the Conception, and Friends Lost at Sea
HEAL THE OCEAN CELEBRATES COASTAL CLEANUP DAY WITH A COASTAL SWEEP
The seawall at Channel Drive, Montecito. Art by Peggy Oki.
To make meaningful input into California’s Coastal Cleanup Day on September 21, 2019, Heal the Ocean has signed an agreement with a commercial sweeping company to sweep the ocean side of Channel Drive between the Biltmore and Butterfly Lane all year round – beginning Friday, September 20, 2019.
Monthly sweeping will take place between 7:00 and 7:30 a.m. on a Friday to minimize interference with parked cars.
HTO thanks the two concerned Montecito citizens who went on a clean-up of Channel Drive – one hiring a commercial sweeper, the other picking up cigarette butts and trash – they have inspired us to get involved!
If you want to support this effort by defraying HTO’s $225/month cost, tax-deductible donations can be sent to https://www.healtheocean.org/donate. Please write “Channel” next to your name.
Heal the Ocean sends deep thanks to the Montecito Journal for granting us a full-page advertisement in its September 12-19, 2019 issue, to announce this program!
COASTAL CLEANUP DAY IS SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2019!
On Saturday, September 21, 2019, thousands of people will head to the beaches to participate in California Coastal Cleanup Day. Started by the California Coastal Commission, this day celebrates the California coast by encouraging people to keep our coast and waters clean and pollution-free!
Show our coast some love this Coastal Cleanup Day (and every day) by picking up trash at the beach. Remember, no matter where we live, we must take action to protect the ocean because, in the end, we are all connected to the ocean, and it connects us all.
For more ways on how you can help the ocean everyday check out our "Simple Ways to Heal the Ocean" postcard! Or pick up supplies from Heal the Ocean to lead your own beach cleanup - contact Alison Thompson (alison@healtheocean.org).
HTO STYROFOAM PROGRAM TAKES OFF (TO THE MOON)!
Peaches the cat
If you recently received a “GOT STYROFOAM?” postcard in the mail (see above), it has come to you from Heal the Ocean. Our goal is that everyone knows about the NEW AND FREE STYROFOAM DROP-OFF at two MarBorg locations:
20 David Love Place, Goleta -- near the Airport at the very end of the David Love Place cul-de-sac;
132 Nopalitos Way, Santa Barbara -- near the lower Milpas Post office.
Please don’t throw Styrofoam in the trash OR in your blue recycle bin! Please take all clean, dry, and debris free Styrofoam at one of the two drop-off locations above.
In only 4 months since Heal the Ocean asked MarBorg Industries to help us with the Styrofoam recycling program we have been working on for some time, the program has taken off...everyone is getting involved – from Carpinteria to Goleta!
Here’s the beauty of this program. The Styrofoam is more than being recycled – it’s being repurposed. Instead of being baled and shipped out of sight somewhere else, the Styrofoam is being made into mirror and picture frames, crown molding and decorative house features.
THIS, THIS & THIS BECOMES …
ALL OF THIS!
Crown Molding, decorative features, picture frames, and mirror frames!)
Heal the Ocean has designated our new intern George Henner as our Styrofoam recycling advisor to assist you in utilizing this program. If you need any assistance or have any questions e-mail George at Styrofoam@healtheocean.org to get this help.
George Henner, HTO’s Styrofoam Advisor
Heal the Ocean's support of the HTO/MarBorg Styrofoam Project is made possible by the Manitou Fund and trustee Nora McNeely Hurley.
MARCIE’S MERMAIDS SET TO SWIM THE CHANNEL ON THURSDAY & FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19-30, 2019!
Rachel Horn, Emily Case, Liz Boscacci, and Heather Royer. Photo by: Paul Wellman
It's the final countdown to Marcie’s Mermaids’ Santa Barbara Channel Swim for Heal the Ocean, which is taking place in the late-evening of Thursday, September 19, 2019, through late-morning Friday, September 20, 2019. The ladies have raised $8,000 for Heal the Ocean already, and are determined to reach their $10,000 goal by Friday!
We are so grateful to the Mermaids for taking on this challenge and we encourage you to show your support to them and our ocean by donating to the Marcie’s Mermaids fundraiser!
On Thursday night, check the Heal the Ocean Facebook and Instagram pages as we track the Mermaids' location and cheer them on as they cross the Santa Barbara Channel. If you would like to support the Mermaids after their swim, they will be finishing at Oxnard Beach late Friday morning and HTO will be there with an impromptu celebration along with hugs, cheers, and endless gratitude!
Recently, the Mermaids were featured in an article, "Making Waves for Marcie" on the Santa Barbara Independent website in which they talked about their ocean-loving friend Marcie Kjoller and their goal to raise funds in her memory for a cause she championed. Marcie’s Mermaids was created in memory of Marcie Kjoller’s life and love for the ocean and the Santa Barbara community. Friend and local marathon swimmer Rachel Horn created the relay team, "Marcie's Mermaids" with Liz Boscacci, Hilary McAvoy, Chelsea Jones, Heather Royer, and Emily Case. These ladies will be swimming 19 miles (10+ hours) across the Santa Barbara Channel without wetsuits to raise funds for Heal the Ocean in Marcie’s memory.
The funds raised by the Mermaids will be used to fund our part in the HTO/MarBorg Industries Styrofoam Recycling Project, which, when fully executed will keep a LOT of harmful Styrofoam material out of the ocean. When you support Marcie’s Mermaids you'll be cheering on these incredible gals and directly helping to keep our ocean clean and safe for all people and sea life.
Help us reach our $10,000 goal -- please watch the video on the Mermaids' swim and be inspired to donate here!
CELEBRATING OUR FRIENDS…
“FANTASTIC FISHES,” we called it, a celebration of a milestone birthday and Hillary’s Fish art, and mainly the whole thing was a great excuse for Heal the Ocean to gather donors and friends, fishermen and politicians, artists and filmmakers – and so many people who help us - for a romping good time. That’s what we did on Sunday, September 8, 2019, at the RyanPerson Gallery in Summerland. It was a big turnout of love and hugs, our dear honorary Annual Event chair Julia Louis-Dreyfus showed up with husband Brad Hall, Jean-Michel Cousteau put on a “Dancing with the Stars” performance with Hillary, our great donors came, our friends and fishermen, and a great time was had by all.
Thank you, Los Agaves for the great hors d’oeuvres, and you FOG Band guys, thank you for putting on the great dance music, and last but not least, thank you, Leslie Person Ryan for opening the doors of your Summerland gallery to us! Watch for the coverage Richard Mineards & Priscilla will feature in an upcoming issue of Montecito Journal!
Above: Hillary Hauser welcomes Julia Louis-Dreyfus and her husband Brad Hall.
Below:Hillary Hauser and Jean-Michel Cousteau cut up to music by FOG Band.
HEAL THE OCEAN’S 2019 BENEFIT - TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE!
Click the photo above to see our invitation!
Please join us at the historic El Paseo Restaurant for an evening of good cheer and company as we celebrate another year of great ocean achievements at Heal the Ocean’s Annual Benefit on October 19, 2019. It will be a night to remember with a great dinner, an amazing live auction, a DJ, dancing, and an ocean-themed photo booth!
Invitations will be arriving in the mail this week and individual tickets are AVAILABLE TODAY! If you haven’t purchased your ticket yet, please don't wait, because tickets will go fast and we want YOU to celebrate with us!
To purchase tickets click here or call or email the office:
805-965-7570 // alison@healtheocean.org
Scene from last year’s Benefit. Photo by Priscilla.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST… A MESSAGE FROM HILLARY
This E-letter has been one of victory and merriment, of work and our doings, but we can’t sign off without recognizing one of the most significant incidents to happen in the ocean in our front yard. The horrendous fire and sinking of the beloved local dive boat Conception is now well known. Many of us have been on this boat and we’ve dived from this boat, and we know the owners, and we also know too many of the 34 people who died in this tragedy. Thinking about this, and searching for words to help, a poem by Maya Angelou comes to mind, “When Great Trees Fall.” It is only an immortal writer who can put into words some thoughts that can help begin to heal our hearts, a difficult process when something so terrible has taken place. Here are these words, put with a picture taken one night from a spot on the Santa Barbara Riviera.
Photo by Hillary Hauser
When Great Trees Fall
By Maya Angelou
When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.
When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.
When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.
Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold
caves.
And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.