Our March 21 monthly Linda Mar Beach cleanup started out as usual- a little chilly, lots of surfers, but with a heavy mist that soaked everything we put out on our PBC table.  But at 9 AM, not only did peeks of sunshine start to warm the beach, so did the likes of 3-5 year-olds and their parents from Brighton PreSchool!  Brighton has adopted Linda Mar Beach through the efforts of widely-respected Gillian.

This time parent Tomiko led the charge, and as Jim (PBC) readied the materials, she welcomed a host of parents and 12 pre-schoolers armed with kitty-litter scoopers to Linda Mar Beach.  They all headed northward as other cleaned the southern part of the beach. Parents were pleasantly surprised that the beach already looked pretty clean, but as Tomiko noted, “When we’re down here surfing, we pick up litter all the time- I think it’s catching on…”

When 11 AM hit the clock, we had a bevy of buckets filled with cans, bottles and some other debris, including over 100 cigarette butts and dozens of straws and bottlecaps.  But most importantly, these pre-schoolers with their scoopers picked up hundreds of the smallest pieces of plastic from the tideline.  These would no doubt have become part of the ocean environment, dangerously scooped up by whales and others since it mixes with plankton.

As our parents and children left the beach, the sun was high and warm, welcoming the public to a clean, environmentally safer beach.  Great job everyone!  See you at Earth Day, April 18!