Congress will continue to hold hearings and negotiations on the federal budget throughout the year, and they need to keep hearing from us on the importance of our beaches and local water testing programs. The Activist Toolkit has resources you can easily use at your Chapter events and meetings this summer to build community awareness and to appeal to your Senators in DC to support funding for the BEACH Act program.
For background on Surfrider's campaign to restore funding for the BEACH Act, click here & campaign update here.
Toolkit Instructions
Print out this petition and bring it to your chapter meetings, social events, beach clean-ups and other tabling events to collect signatures. Fill in your Senators’ names in the salutation and your state in the petition text on the first page. Make sure you print it out double-sided, the petition letter must be on the same sheet of paper as all your signatures in order to be valid. Petition available here.
Use this letter, or copy the text onto your chapter’s letterhead, to send into your Senators’ offices with your completed petitions. Better yet, hand deliver the petitions to their in-state district offices or hold a press event during the summer to get some media coverage for the campaign and your signed petitions. Sample letter available here.
3. Action Alert
There is an action alert live here.
Please post this link on your Chapter website and social media sites.
4. Sample Letter for Chapter Letter Writing Campaign
Ask your members to sign a letter and send it in to your Senators after a chapter meeting or hold a social event to get members to join the campaign. Fill in your Senators’ addresses and names in the sample letter or copy the letter text onto your Chapter’s letterhead. Access letter here.
Contact information and messaging are available here if you prefer to contact your senators via phone or social media sites.
6. Other Possibilities….
If you want to hold a paddle out or other press event, or have an other idea you can contact Mara Dias mdias@surfrider.org and I can help you tailor some talking points specific to your event and location.
If you live in CA, OR, MI, NY, NJ, or DE both of your senators previously signed a request to the Senate Appropriations to restore funding for the BEACH Act program. See the the letter and full list of signatures here.
We need to thank these senators and ask for their continued support as budget negotiations will continue throughout the rest of the year. Sample thank-you letter here.
Please contact Mara Dias mdias@surfrider.org with any questions.