|
St. A's Part of Largest Coastal Clean-Up Ever by Liesel Friedrich It's Sister Mother Teresa who tells us not to be discouraged about being just one person in the face of a huge mess because each tiny drop of water matters in the ocean because the ocean is made up of all those tiny drops of water. It was just seven of us from St. A's who changed our schedules so that we could pick up garbage on the beach in Santa Monica. At our site, just north of the Pier, we were part of a team of 128 people of all ages who picked up 148 pounds of garbage. Our team was one of six here in Santa Monica where 1422 people picked up 1148 pounds of garbage. A sign warning people about the presence of mountain lions was found buried in the sand. There was also an electric guitar, and a bell from an ice cream truck. At the 50 sites along the Southern California coast 9,012 volunteers picked up 60,126 pounds of garbage. They also collected 2,866 pounds of recyclable cans and bottles. Just stop and focus on any one of these numbers. The fish and marine wildlife will not have their lives threatened or extinguished because more than 60,000 pounds of garbage--cigarette butts, juice boxes, bottle tops--won't be floating or sinking in their environment. "It needs to be done and we got to help" was the happy reaction of Suzanne Edwards and her son, Zack, a 7th grader at Lincoln Middle School. "It was fun," she adds. Eben Cook was most amazed at the chicken bones that he found. "I think of California as a healthy place. There's no smoking in restaurants, for instance. People go to the beach for recreation, and then they trash it." Alice Lunsford (who was married at St. A's 49 years ago) and Suzanne Whitney, a parishioner of 23 years, are artists, actresses and ladies in the true sense of the word. The rest of us walked about half a mile in the sand to get to our site, but Alice commandeered a huge truck and told the driver that she was separated from Suzanne and couldn't find her. "It was such a mob," explains Alice, "He was so nice. He spotted Suzanne. I had no idea how to find her. He zoomed over the sand, and there she was." "He was lovely and kind," says Suzanne, "It was a spiritual experience. I said to him, 'you go to church, don't you?' and he said yes, but in South Central. I told him about St. Augustine's. I always mention St. Augustine's when I can." It was a hot and sweaty morning with not nearly enough people to do all the work that needed to be done. I will never forget the sight of a huge beach maintenance truck coming toward my little table, and when it stopped, out stepped Alice Lunsford and Suzanne Whitney with hats and giggles and gloves, ready to get to work. What a welcome sight!!! HealtheBay.org is where you can learn about environmental clean up events all year round.
Copyright © 2003 St. Augustine by-the-Sea
|
