Early Saturday morning, I arrived at Huntington State Beach driving a U-Haul that held my sculpture in its five different pieces. I parked and quickly got to work with the help of my assistant to assemble the it. Within the next hour it was finally up and standing in the parking right next to the bike path. It was a goose bump occasion for me to finally have all the pieces screwed and bolted together with the beach and ocean as its backdrop.
Shortly after bikers and runners were stopping and wanting to learn more about the work. It was amazing moment when I finally was sharing all the research I have been collecting over the past few months.
Volunteers quickly started arriving and checking in with Coastalkeepers to begin their task of cleaning up the beach. As the day went on and the clouds cleared, it turned into a beautiful day of blue skies with a nice breeze coming off the water. Once the cleanup was over, the Trash Free Jamboree began. I talked with volunteers about their experience picking up trash. It seemed as though everyone was surprised that all the trash was so small. I think when people think about beach cleanups they have a preconceived notion that they’ll find huge pieces of trash. What I had to share with them was also the importance of picking up the small pieces. Those are the items that coastal animals mistake as food and consume.
One of my favorite moments of the day was talking with the Girl and Boy Scout Troops that were really interested in all of the items on the wave. I went through and had them find the items such as the scorpion, mermaid, the 7 shoes, and the 5 shovels. We then talked about different ways they could incorporate into their daily routines to eliminate plastic usage. I loved their enthusiasm and was stoked that their energy made an impact to this event!
I am looking forward to future sights that my wave of trash will travel to in the near future and the impact it will have on educating people on plastics. Be on the lookout for other locations that it will be displayed.
