Ever wonder how to foster ocean stewardship? More often than not, it happens through an experience like one that we witnessed last Saturday during our International Coastal Cleanup & Celebration.
Accompanying her father, one of our young volunteer participants assisted with the debris sort where she helped organize, count and weigh the various items to enter into the Ocean Conservancy’s Clean Swell app for citizen science. Once complete, she and her dad joined the other volunteers at the celebration event where she sat with our partner environmental artist, JudyDayCo, to paint underwater scenes on discarded CD's, an upcycled waste product. This circular "canvas" obviously made an impression, as did her observance of all of the trash she helped remove because later that night, her mother shared a drawing, seen here, that she had just completed in her sketchbook depicting Biscayne Bay both before and after the cleanup.
Artwork by Cree M.
Through her Blue Scholars experience a valuable connection was made that she expressed through art and shared with others. Without words, her message is loud and clear... BE THE SOLUTION, NOT THE POLLUTION!