Welcome to the Sea Stars' New Blog! We've switched over to a Google-based system, and are in the process of figuring out this new blogging deal... Bear with us throughout! Hope you enjoy it! Our complete photo album can be found here.
We believe you're never too young to make a difference, and these two groups of girls proved that on Saturday by picking up pounds and pounds (80 lbs!!!) of trash and recyclables from the Salish Sea shoreline. These trash busters became Shoreline Seekers, Log Lookers and Sand Savers. In our smaller groups of determined garbage detectives, we scoured the shoreline and muck, poking around in those many hidden spots in and under seaweed, bushes and rocks for every piece of trash we could find, no matter how small.
Highlights from our day:
* The collaboration between the Seastars and the Ospreys, collectively referred to as the Seaspreys! Though more girls means less individualized attention and small group bonding, it gives girls the chance to serve and explore with other girls in the program and feel like part of something beyond their regular group.
Highlights from our day:
* The collaboration between the Seastars and the Ospreys, collectively referred to as the Seaspreys! Though more girls means less individualized attention and small group bonding, it gives girls the chance to serve and explore with other girls in the program and feel like part of something beyond their regular group.
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| The Seaspreys starting their day off streeeetttchiing with some Marine Animal Yoga! |
* The respect and profound observations made by girls about a dead shark we discovered (Spiny Dogfish). After lots of discussion, pondering, wondering and poking, our heightened attention gave way to curiosity and we decided to open up the Shark's carcass. We have so much gratitude for this learning opportunity and the moment to wonder about all the internal organs. And wow. The aroma of the not quite freshly dead sea creature will be a smell memory forever! Deciding to dissect it was a chance for these girls to a group discussion about what the Native Americans did with this animal, and why we should leave it as lunch for the birds as opposed to burying in the sand.
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| Holly flipping our shark friend over |
*Love letters to the Salish Sea. The girls took a quiet moment to individually write in the tidal sand their thoughts, prayers, wishes and/or gratitude for the sea and all life within.
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| The girls out writing their love "letters". |
*The girls’ determination to leave no garbage behind. Not only did they pick up the large and easy to spot garbage, they made sure to use their eagle eyes to find and remove even the tiniest pieces of plastic (smaller than a fingernail!). As we learned, these "micro trash" items can have the greatest impact on wildlife, for they are much more likely to be mistaken for a yummy, colorful food item by wildlife than the long plastic pipes we found.
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| Working hard as a team to pick up garbage-- we found some big stuff! |
* Watching how the EC mottos are becoming internalized. Girls consciously applied these on Saturday:
- Safety First (we discussed how to work with potentially dangerous garbage carefully, or not at all)
- Widen the Circle (girls included everyone, not just those they know well)
- You See It, You Own It (though we didn't litter the trash, we became responsible to pick it up)
- Build Bridges Not Walls (... in how we speak and act toward one another)
- Everyone Helps (each one of us was an important part of the solution)
- All Things Are Connected (girls reflected on how the Nooksack River connects the mountains to Bellingham Bay, which is connected to the Salish Sea, which is connected to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which is connected to the Pacific Ocean, which is connected to the Atlantic Ocean, etc. And how we were connected to the 500,000 other volunteers participating in the ICC this day)
- LIBK (girls were great at letting us know what was working and not working for them throughout the day)
- Walk Your Talk (even after a long day of trash harvesting and tired bodies, the girls applied their integrity as a group to haul the trash uphill with commitment and determination to the waiting truck)
* Watching some girls' eager encounters with boot sucking mud
* At day's end discussing the things each of us can do to reduce the amount of marine debris, such as walking/biking more, driving less; being mindful of sustainable practices when shopping for food; sustainable boating; buying things with less packaging; reducing our consumption in general; reusing things; being mindful of what we put into storm drains and waterways that lead to the sea; and participating in the International Coastal Cleanup!
Our words of the day: "Life, death, water and mud. Garbage, be gone!"
-Holly
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