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Page 4 September 28, 2017 TORRANCE TRIBUNE
TerriAnn in Torrance
Coastal Cleanup Day 2017: Torrance Community in Action
Story and Photos by TerriAnn Ferren
Miramar Park was again the staging location
for Coastal Cleanup Day 2017. Beach
Captain Leslie Cortez and Beach Co-Captain
Betty Perez were already working hard when I
arrived at 8 a.m. last Saturday morning at the
park. “[I’m] very nervous, but it is a learning
experience,” said Betty. Organizing for Team
Honda was Alexandra Warnier, Manager of
Corporate Social Responsibility at American
Honda who told me Honda has been participating
in Coastal Cleanup Day for “over 20
years. Our associates love it, they come with
their friends, their family. It is a day to join
together with the community and join together
for the environment. I have been coming here
for a while. It is always fun and I think today
we will have a great turnout.”
I spotted a group of ‘Team Honda’ children who
were excited and ready to hit the beach at their
first Coastal Cleanup event. The Woods family,
including father Jeff, mom Lisa, and their three
children---Natalie, age six; Lincoln, age three;
and Wyatt, age six months--were getting ready
to clean the beach for the first time with Team
Honda. “It is pretty exciting. We have done it
on our own before, but it is the first time we
have done it through work,” said Jeff. “I want
to find the golden starfish. If you get it, you
get a prize,” said Lincoln excitedly.
This year’s event was a bit more special
because Heal the Bay provided three golden
starfish that were hidden in the sand by Team
Torrance volunteers, and whoever found the
special golden starfish (attached to a small bit
of trash and a congratulations tag) received a
special prize. Young and old were scouring the
sand looking for the elusive golden starfish.
Finally, toward the end of the day, the starfish
were found!
Torrance Mayor Patrick Furey, Councilwoman
Heidi Ann Ashcraft, Councilman Geoff Rizzo,
Councilman Kurt Weideman, and City Treasurer
Dana Cortez helped clean up Torrance Beach
and support Team Torrance on that beautiful
Saturday morning.
Adults and children worked together, picking
up the tiniest bits of trash to large, rusted pieces
of rebar (reinforcing steel bars). Councilwoman
Heidi Ann Ashcraft turned in a whopping 14.5
pounds of trash all by herself! She told me, “I
went to the supply container next to the snack
bar…I had a huge filthy, yucky towel, the
back of a bicycle, a platform…I had to leave
a ‘Helpful Honda’ guy – he’s going to have a
whole lot more. He’ll have a whole bucketful!”
Luckily, I was able to catch up with Beach
Captain Leslie Cortez for a few comments,
“This would mark my 17th year doing beach
cleanup for the city of Torrance,” she said.
“Year-to-year, something exciting always happens.
You learn from that, after 17 years, you
tend to develop a pretty good formula for this
kind of event.” Leslie told me that Torrance
Beach is fairly clean. However a few odd items
have been found, including a wedding dress
and a hotel key. What? “Coastal Cleanup’s
been around for three decades now--it was
developed by the Ocean Conservancy and to
date, with this Coastal Cleanup event being
an international event, 12 million volunteers
have picked up over 200 million pounds of
trash in the past three decades,” said Leslie.
Torrance volunteers: L-R, Jennifer Olvera; President and CEO of the Torrance Chamber, Donna Duperron; Captain Leslie Cortez;
Co-Captain Betty Perez; and Nina Lang.
“Here at Torrance Beach last year in 2016,
our numbers were 658 volunteers that picked
up 250 pounds of trash and recyclables. Those
are astounding numbers for a clean beach and
ironically what they find are little pieces of
Styrofoam, lots of cigarette butts, bottle caps,
plastic straws, you name it… just anything a
machine or equipment can’t pick up. They sift
through and find these little pieces and that is
what actually is most detrimental to our marine
life, ‘cuz they mistake it for food.”
Would you like to get involved with cleaning
the beach? Check out Heal the Bay (healthebay.
org) and find out about adopting a beach
or volunteering for the many cleanup days
throughout the year. Girl Scout and Boy Scout
troops are involved with cleaning up the beach
as well as other organizations throughout the
year. “Heal the Bay does a really good job of
organizing, all you have to do is show up,”
added Leslie.
As I was leaving Miramar Park, a bicyclist
slowly wheeled by, looked at the banners
designating the City of Torrance and Honda
as cleanup crews, and said, “Thanks for what
you guys did.” That made an impression on
me. Then I glanced at the large frog sculpture
at Miramar Park, donated many years ago in
memory of Sandi Walker, and looked again out
toward the vast, sparkling Pacific Ocean. Sandi
was a philanthropist who dedicated herself to
helping others and I think she would smile at
the great job Torrance does with keeping the
beach off Miramar Park clean. I later found
out the final statistics for 2017 from Heal the
Bay, which stated, “More than 9,600 volunteers
collected over 23,000 pounds of trash across
61 sites.”
If you live in Torrance, or even if you don’t,
and want to help with Coastal Cleanup Day
next year in 2018, just mark your calendar
for the third Saturday in September. Meeting
friends and making new ones while cleaning
up our beach is fun. Not only will you be
blessed with the clean air and sunshine in a
gorgeous park and beach, but you also help
the sea animals that can’t distinguish between
little bits of trash and food. See you next year
at Coastal Cleanup Day 2018! •
Andrew DeBlock, representing Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi’s office; City Treasurer Dana Cortez; Councilman Kurt Weideman; Councilwoman
Heidi Ann Ashcraft; Mayor Patrick J. Furey; Beach Captain Leslie Cortez; Co-Captain Betty Perez; Fire Prevention Specialist
Scott Krieger; and Mark Waronek, representing Janice Hahn’s office.
Team Honda children volunteers. Councilwoman Heidi Ann Ashcraft, Former Mayor Frank Scotto, Torrance Mayor Pat Furey, and Field Deputy Mark Waronek,
representing Janice Hahn.
Jeff and Lisa Woods with their children: L-R, Natalie, age six;
Lincoln, age three; and Wyatt, six months old and ready to
clean the beach!
Bryan Wong; Rachel Wong, age 10; Melody Cam, age 10; Kaili
Golden Starfish Winners Gina Brennan, Camryn Brennan and Alana Venegas. Nomura, age 10 and ready to find the lucky starfish!