Maui Chapter Helps Pass Tobacco-Free Beaches & Parks Bill!!!

On Earth Day, the Maui Chapter joined other groups to celebrate the passing of a county council bill  to ban smoking on the Island’s beaches and parks.  As part of Surfrider’s Hold On To Your Butts Campaign, the Chapter partnered with the Maui District Student Council Organization (MDSCO) to host cigarette butt cleanups around the Island on Sun., Jan. 12, 2014.  Acting as MDSCO’s advisor and Surfrider’s Volunteer Coordinator, Andrew O’Riordan helped bring together other groups like Sustainable Coastlines and the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii to organize the cleanups and follow-up actions.  Scores of students and local leaders collected more than 14,000 cigarette butts in less than two hours, and they gathered at the County Administration building the next day to present their findings to the public and the County Council.  Recognizing their efforts, Mayor Arakawa declared the day to be “Butts Off Our Beaches Day.” The Maui Chapter then worked with students and a number of different groups over several months to move the bill through the County Council, whose members passed the bill for tobacco-free beaches on Earth Day, Tue., April 22, 2014. Smoking is now banned on the Big Island, Oahu and Maui, and if a similar bill is passed on Kauai, Hawaii will become the first state to ban smoking on its beaches and parks.