Seaside Neighborhood School students and teachers participate in Coastal Cleanup Day. Shown above are Angel Kurtz and Ms. Billie Gaffrey.
Seaside Neighborhood School students help beautify their beaches by Courtney Krick
The International Coastal Cleanup began more than 30 years ago, when communities rallied together with the common goal of collecting and documenting the trash littering their coastline. Each September, thousands of volunteers attend local clean ups in their community.
In 2018, during the Ocean Conservancy’s 33rd annual International Coastal Cleanup Day more than 1 million volunteers headed to their local coastline (beach, river or lake); rolled up their sleeves; and picked up trash — approximately 23 million pounds of it in just one day.
Every student at Seaside Neighborhood School participated in Coastal Cleanup during the morning of Sept. 25. Our students collected trash found on the coastlines in Seaside and Watercolor — students documented type and amount of trash collected, during science class we analyzed the data, and then shared our findings with the Ocean Conservancy. Our data and all data collected through the International Coastal Cleanup collection plays a direct role in shaping national legislation to reduce debris and help our local community in establishing programs of reducing trash on the beach.
In addition to our participation in the International Coastal Cleanup, Seaside Neighborhood School is also participating in a program called Washed Ashore, where our students will learn about plastic pollution, help to educate and change consumer habits in our community through student created art made of plastic pollution that washes ashore on the beaches of Santa Rosa Beach.
Gabriel Palazzi, Mrs. Sonya Grant, Gigi Sumpter and Eli Smart
The Washed Ashore mission states it “builds and exhibits aesthetically powerful art to educate a global audience about plastic pollution in oceans and waterways and spark positive changes in consumer habits.”
Through participation in International Coastal Cleanup and Washed
Ashore, we hope to inspire and empower our students to take
responsibility for trash free seas, not just on a single fall day, but
every day throughout the year.
Courtney Krick received both her Bachelor’s Degree and Master’s Degree in Elementary Education from the University of Florida. In her 8th year as a science teacher at Seaside she is passionate about helping students develop their individual strengths and develop skills as lifelong learners and contributing members of society through authentic real world educational experiences like Coastal Cleanup and Washed Ashore.
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