Surfrider’s Ocean Friendly Programs Manager, CJ O’Brien Weddle continues to visit chapters on the East Coast to help them grow their OFR program. Our goal has been to add 60 new OFRs on the East Coast this year and so far, we have added 47. We are so close!
Left to right, Jill (Vice Chair), Christine (Secretary) CJ (Ocean Friendly Programs Manager), Megan (OFR Lead), Don (At Large Chair)
On the Jersey Shore, CJ met with the brand new OFR lead, Megan and other EC members. Like many chapters, COVID stalled the program, but they are excited to renew expired restaurants and recruit new OFRs. Together they went over the criteria and came up with a plan to rebuild the program. With Surfrider’s exclusive sustainable vendor discounts and benefits such as marketing collateral, they are confident many restaurants will want to join on!
Peep the OFR sticker on the window! CJ (Ocean Frendly Programs Manager) and Kerry (CLI Chapter OFR Lead)
After a quick drive to Long Beach, NY, CJ met with Kerry, the Central Long Island Chapter OFR Lead. Together they visited a few restaurants, practicing Kerry’s elevator pitch and leaving behind OFR materials. We think 2 restaurants will sign on any day now!
The final stop was in Rockaway Beach for a 40th Anniversary Celebration with the New York City Chapter.
Here CJ got to connect with Molly, the OFR lead, as well as other Surfrider staff and volunteers. We also spoke with staff at the hotel in hopes that they will join the OFR & OFH programs!
Surfrider NYC 40th Anniversary Party at the Rockaway Hotel
Beach Cleanups
Surfrider has been busy on our beaches this summer! We recently wrapped up July which included the Dirtiest Beach Day cleanups on July 5th and the launch of our 5th annual Beach Cleanup Report. With over 90 cleanups happening in July and tens of thousands of pounds of trash being cleaned up, it's safe to say that Surfrider volunteers certainly left their beaches better than they found them.
North OC volunteers teamed up with WSL and Surfrider staff to remove more than 600 lbs. of trash from the Santa Ana River, Southern California's largest watershed.
In 2020, Surfrider's North OC chapter adopted a 1.5-mile portion of the Santa Ana River at Adams Avenue through the Orange County Public Works Adopt-A-Channel Program. Surfrider's goal with the AAC Program is to get upstream of the issues plaguing our ocean, beaches, and waves by removing as much trash from the river before it gets flushed into the ocean during the rainy season.
The Santa Ana River is the largest watershed in Southern California, stretching 96 miles from Big Bear Mountain to the Pacific Ocean dividing Huntington Beach from Newport Beach. A population of nearly 6 million people live in this watershed and is therefore one of the main contributors of marine pollution in coastal North Orange County. To date, Surfrider has removed more than 8 tons of trash from the river through its Adopt-A-Channel clean up events and with the support of WSL PURE in 2024, the chapter will prevent 10,000 pounds of trash and plastic from reaching the ocean by educating and engaging volunteers. Funds also support the design of a trash interception device for the Santa Ana River channel as an upstream solution to ocean-bound trash.