Mobilize 5,000 Volunteers at 200 Cleanups Annually

Hello, 

Thank you so much for your support of Ocean Blue's Create a Cleanup Program! Cleanups empower individuals, schools, and businesses to develop local cleanup events around the United States. By mobilizing local communities, we sustainably address people’s plastic problem. Our purpose is to contribute to the recovery of 1 million pounds of plastic and debris from the ocean. We have already recovered over 235,284 pounds, including 82,582 pounds in 2019 alone, the year prior to one that impacted all of lives profoundly. 

When 2020 brought the global pandemic, still lingering today nearly two years since it hit, our goal was to engage 5,000 volunteers in 200 cleanup events. This goal is based on the success of the 2019 pilot program in which 36 Create a Cleanup Crew Leaders engaged 918 volunteers in their own local communities around the United States, guided remotely by the Ocean Blue Team. Sustainability is at the heart of our core values. By remotely training lead volunteers, we significantly decrease the amount of travel required to fulfill volunteer demands. 

Therefore, the Create a Cleanup program is sustainable in that we lower our operating costs related to cleanups as well as our team’s carbon footprint. Create a Cleanup launched successfully with no outreach as volunteers reached out to Ocean Blue, including employees from Salesforce, Boeing, Wells Fargo and Directors of Upward Bound programs around Oregon, who all successfully led Create a Cleanups on the west coast. 

The pandemic put a pause on our goal to mobilize thousands of volunteers to gather in collaborative cleanup crews led by a Cleanup Crew Leader willing to steward a local beach or waterway that flows to the ocean. And as things started slowly opening back up, like a flower does after a spring rain on a misty Oregon Coast morning in May, so did Ocean Blue Cleanup Crew Leaders start getting their boots-in-the-sand again. The Ocean Blue Team guided 26 Crew Leaders in Oregon, Washington, California, Florida, New Jersey, and New Hampshire, with only six of those cleanups happening prior to Coastal Cleanup Month in September. 

Moving forward, we prioritize outreach efforts for organizations similar to Upward Bound, a federally funded program serving high school students from low-income families; and high school students from families in which neither parent holds a bachelor's degree. Upward Bound facilitates successful transitions to college for their students and Ocean Blue had the privilege to work with two Upward Bound groups each year for three consecutive years prior to the pandemic. We also work with college and university student clubs, civic engagement and youth organizations to do cleanups from all around the United States from Oregon to Florida. 

To engage 5,000 volunteers in 200 cleanups in 2022. we need to mobilize 200 Ocean Blue Cleanup Crew Leaders to lead cleanup events at their local beaches, rivers, and parks. Outreach to youth programs, and other organizations that serve marginalized and underserved or at-promise youth will take priority. Through our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiative, surveys will provide data and experience reports with stories to help raise awareness about the need for everyone to feel welcome to Create a Cleanup and make an impact for the Ocean.

Gratefully yours, 

Karisa Arterbury

Director of Operations

Ocean Blue Project

www.oceanblueproject.org

karisa@oceanblueproject.org

Links:

• Register to Create a Cleanup local to you!