The Watershed Project's California Coastal Cleanup Day

Join the 25th Anniversary of the California Coastal Cleanup for
Albany & Richmond Shorelines Clean Up Events

On September 19th, International Coastal Cleanup Day is back to stir up volunteer activity on the shores of Albany and Richmond. Gather your family, friends and neighbors to actively beautify our local shorelines!

You can also join the cleanup efforts further upstream, along Cerrito Creek, to help stop the debris where it starts. Whatever your preference, the day is guaranteed to be fun, engaging, satisfying to everyone joining this worldwide effort to help our environment! All around the bay and all around the world volunteers have gathered for the past 25 years in a push to clean shorelines and raise awareness surrounding ocean and beach pollution. Volunteers record and tally the trash cleaned up at the shorelines for the Ocean Conservancy’s database where it will be used to analyze the global crisis of trash in our oceans.

The International Shoreline Cleanup is the largest event of its kind - over 76 countries participate every year. Last year along the coast of California some 73,461 volunteers at 750 locations cleaned 1.6 million pounds of trash, of which almost 200,000 pounds of debris was recycled. Proud Californian volunteers have the unique opportunity to work together on the same day to show the world they care about the fate of their oceans, bays and shorelines.

“The Watershed Project is pleased to engage communities in the East Bay to become part of the largest international volunteer effort in the world – Coastal Cleanup Day. From Albany to Point Pinole, the East Bay shoreline will be teeming with volunteers. We hope that citizens walk away form these events with a new sense of stewardship for their shoreline and an increased awareness of the dangers of marine debris for wildlife and habitat.”

Linda Hunter, Executive Director

International Coastal Cleanup Day
September 19, 2009
9am – 12pm

To join the effort, meet at one of the following locations:
• Shimada Friendship Park, meet at the park located at the end of Marina Bay Parkway
• Point Isabel Regional Shoreline, meet at the parking lot at the end of Rydin Rd (off Central Ave)
• Albany Bulb, meet at the foot of Buchanan Street, next to the racetrack, or you can join the Cerrito Creek Cleanup at corner of the El Cerrito Plaza and Evelyn Street.

Wear sturdy shoes, a hat and sunscreen, and bring your own water bottle and gloves if you have them. Celebration for volunteers at all sites will follow the cleanup. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Any volunteer under 18 not attending with their own parent or guardian should download a waiver from the Coastal Commission’s web site, have it signed, and bring it to the clean up: http://www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/ccd/ccd5.html

RSVP for groups of 10 or more to volunteer [at] thewatershedproject.org

This event is sponsored by the City of Albany, City of Richmond, County Supervisor Gioia, the Richmond Shoreline Citizen Response group, Friends of Five Creeks, and EBRPD; and coordinated by the Watershed Project.

For further info e-mail us at volunteer [at] thewatershedproject.org or visit http://www.thewatershedproject.org