Connecticut Community Boating Beach Clean Up 2012

Connecticut Community Boating has long since proven our commitment to waterfront access, our belief that no child should be denied access to the water and that everyone deserves the right to enjoy a day on the water. But our local efforts do play into a larger picture and this spring, it is our aim to bring that the larger aspects of what we do to light. 

There are five gyres in each of the five Oceans of the world that now each play host to an island roughly the size of Texas and bigger, some 90 feet deep, made purely of trash and plastics. When you have cleaned as many beaches as we have at CCB, you realize, that that is not some far off problem that bears no impact on me and has nothing to do with me. As a State is it is "WE" that have caused the problem. Our Oceans team with trash that comes from local streets, local sewers and local trash cans. Connecticut's shores are choked with plastics, styrofoam, straws, bags, cups, tires and all sorts of disgusting nasty things that every day work there way into the watershed and find their way to the world Oceans. Check out a Video we prepared about this very important issue.

Think of the scene when Tom Hanks finds a porta pottie shell in the 2000 movie "Cast Away" and uses it as a spinnaker to make his way home.  Although it saves him and reminds him of "Bakersfield!!!", how do you suppose that giant chunk of plastic made it from America to the South Pacific? And what do you think happens to that straw that washes off the beaches of the Great Salt Marsh at Stratford into the Sound, out the East River, into the Gulf Stream, along the coast of Africa down around Cape of Good Hope and into the South Pacific where a small fish, bird or turtle consumes it on its way back north. Now multiply that times 7 Million and you can understand why this needs our attention. 

CCB is all about trying to make our local shores a nicer place to play, more affordable for all and revive the asset that we as a State enjoy. But how can we begin to want to enjoy it when it is filled with trash and pollution that is killing the world's ecology? So that is why, we start each year with help from Fairfield U, local churches, schools and many other community partners by cleaning the beaches. Sure it would be nicer to do it in the warm weather, but you cant do it in the fall or summer. The grass grows over the trash and the birds come in to nest. So we do it every spring in the hopes to raise awareness of the problem and do our part to stem the flow of trash into the Sea. 

But it cant be done without insurance, phones, volunteers, bags, gloves, gas, boats, and about a hundred other things that cost money. We need dollars from everyone to make this herculean effort happen. Please donate today and mark your calendar for March because Beach Cleanup Month 2012 is coming. Thank you.