Blockbuster employees get ready to clean Elysian Park during Coastal Cleanup Day. Photo: Frankie Orrala/Heal the Bay
Cub Scouts listen attentively to the safety precaution talk before cleaning the beach in Torrance. Photo: Lee Myers/Heal the Bay
Volunteers scour Compton Creek for trash during Coastal Cleanup Day. Photo: Heal the Bay

On Saturday, September 17, 2005 over 10,300 people came to Los Angeles County beaches, rivers and creeks to participate in Coastal Cleanup Day and renew their commitment to a clean and healthy ocean. All told, volunteers picked up 92,226 pounds of trash and 2,682 pounds of recyclables from 61 sites.

It was an amazing sight to see people from all walks of life—including schools, businesses, government agencies and community groups—pull together to rid our local waterways of unsightly trash. In fact, Coastal Cleanup Day occurred in 88 countries with an estimated 500,000 people joining in making it, once again, the largest volunteer day on the planet!

Heal the Bay thanks the many volunteers who help make Coastal Cleanup Day successful year after year—proving that one person CAN make a difference! We would also like to extend a special thanks to the cities, agencies, businesses, and radio and TV stations that sponsored this event by generously donating funds, time and in-kind services (see Coordinators & Sponsors sidebar on the right). Their contributions helped make the day a huge success.

More Coastal Cleanup Day News...

Coastal Cleanup Day Television Special
The KCAL9/KCBS2 produced Coastal Cleanup Day one hour television special “H2O Heroes” won a day time Emmy for outstanding children’s education programming. Stephanie Rodriguez, director of public affairs for KCAL9/KCBS2, and a Heal the Bay board member, was instrumental in the production of this program. The special was shown the week before Coastal Cleanup Day on KCAL9 and will air again September 24th on KCBS2 at 10am.

Coastal Cleanup Education Day
The new Coastal Cleanup Education Day was held on Friday, September 16th at the Santa Monica Pier. Eighteen buses with over 1,000 students participated in the day rotating through five educational components: cleanups, beach exploration, the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, the Santa Monica Urban Runoff Recycling Facility, and a "fun zone" staffed with partnering organizations — Santa Monica Baykeeper, Natural History Museum, Harbor Patrol, Lifeguards, and the Cancer Society.

Coastal Cleanup Activity Guide
Heal the Bay’s 2005 Coastal Cleanup Activity Guide is now available for distribution. Classroom sets of the 24-page, illustrated “Everyday is Coastal Cleanup Day” Activity Guide can be ordered online. Take a look through last year's guide to get a taste of our water cycle, watershed and pollution prevention activities.

The guide was made possible through generous support from Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, KCAL9/KCBS2 and the City of Santa Monica. To make the guide more useful to educators, the guide is written to California state education standards which are listed on every page.