Benjamin Kay's award

Guest blogger Kou Collins says...

On June 19th 2010 Team Marine went to the TreePeople headquarters where Team Marine members Kou Collins and Jacob Hassett were present along with assistant coach Renee Klein who watched their head coach Benjamin Kay win an award. This night was filled with awards that different people won. TreePeople's founder Andy Lipkis was in attendance and even gave a brief speech which explained the whole organization. The award Ben Kay won, was presented by Generation Earth, and is a very important award.

Recovering from Summer Fever + Beach Cleanup

A big hello from Team Marine to all of our readers! Sadly we've all been very busy this summer, and unable to blog regularly. We will be updating you all on all of our activities we have already completed this summer, starting with our first beach cleanup.

By invitation of Sara Bayles, Team Marine attended a beach cleanup at Santa Monica's lifeguard tower 26 in honor of International Surfing Day, on June 20th, 2010. Close to 40 others accompanied Team Marine in the cleanup, collecting 71.7 pounds of trash from the seemingly clean Santa Monica Beach spot. All that attended were entered into raffles for surfboard demos, shirts, and other prizes, and were provided with a great breakfast of pastries, bagels, and drinks. Participants also competed for prizes for oddest object collected, heaviest object collected, most trash collected, etc. It seemed that Kou won most of them, collecting the most and finding a candle in the shape of a naked woman which was voted the oddest object of the day. We want to give a big thanks to Sara Bayles and Mike Takahashi for organizing, as well to the sponsors of the cleanup including Surfrider, Arbor, and Aqua Surf School.

TEAM MARINE GRADUATES

On Friday Team Marine graduated from Santa Monica High School.
Team Marine will be going on to attend several Colleges including UCSB, Oregon State, Pitzer College, Humboldt State and University of San Francisco.

Ban The Bag. Support AB 1998

Support Lifestraws

Please support our partners in their efforts to expand the Lifestraw Program. Team Marine has been working with this group for the past year and a half collecting and recycling bottles and cans to raise money to buy water purification straws for people who do not have access to clean drinking water.
Please click on the link and vote for them to receive $250K to expand the Lifestraw Program.
http://www.refresheverything.com/watersolutionsforlife

Letters To Assemblymembers Supporting AB1998

Team Marine's letter to Assemblymembers

Team Marine wrote and sent letters to eight members of The California State Assembly who play a critical role in the passage of AB1998. In the letter Team marine urges the Assemblymembers to vote for AB1998.

Excerpt form the letter
"California has a critical role to play in becoming a true leader in eliminating plastic bag waste and preventing the proliferation of plastic pollution in our communities. The passage of AB 1998 will be a major step in breaking our addiction to single-use bags. Please help us protect California's and the world's oceans for generations to come by voting for AB1998."

AB1998 Press Conference

Screen shot of Kcal 9 news clip of press conference

On Tuesday morning Team Marine met at the Santa Monica Pier for a press conference to show our support for AB1998. If passed AB1998 would ban all single-use plastic bags in grocery stores, convenience stores and pharmacies and regulate paper bags. Team Marine Captain Megan Kilroy and Coach Benjamin Kay spoke. Team Marine was joined by representatives of several environmental organizations such as Heal The Bay, Environment California, and The Plastic Pollution Coalition.

Follow this link to watch the video
http://cbs2.com/video/?id=136201%40kcbs.dayport.com

Team Marine Goes To Catalina

As a reward for winning first place in the Edison Challenge and second place in the QuickScience Challenge Team Marine spent four days at the USC Marine Wrigley Institute on Catalina island. While on the island Team Marine had a lot of fun snorkling, kyacking, hiking, stargazing and studying the unique marine ecosystem. Even on such a remote beautiful island Team Marine still spent a lot of time picking up single-use plastic from the beaches and in the waves.