Starting with my first beach cleanup at age three I have done a lot of volunteer work for Save our Shores, including beach cleanups, serving as a site leader at a California State Park beach, fundraising, and data creation and analysis (in SQL) with their extensive item by site cleanup data.
I recently completed a strenuous 1-day, 20-mile beach cleanup and fundraiser (Feb. 2, 2020). I cleaned beaches from Santa Cruz to Salinas River State Beach. I raised $2,000 from people sponsoring my trek. Please check out the page created by Save our Shores to promote the event.
And, here are a couple of pictures from the trip. It was a long and exhausting trip, walking on sand and picking up trash along the way, but I had to jump in the ocean at the end!
I also recently participated in the Polar Plunge as a fundraiser for ocean plastic awareness through Save our Shores. The water and air were cold that day, which was New Years Day 2020!
https://www.facebook.com/events/703406326812810/
Using the data that I compiled I found that the number of plastic bags picked up on beaches decreased over time coinciding with local bans on them.
Here’s a picture from my first beach cleanup ever for Save our Shores with my dad and older sister.
Here’s a picture from the start of my beach cleanup that covered 30 miles of beaches from Santa Cruz to Monterey over two days and one night camping at a state park along the way.
