Backyard Benefit Jam for Ocean Cure

After going to a benefit concert back in early 2010, I came home from California excited to get involved with the local non-profit Ocean Cure.  I didn't know it then, but after volunteering with Ocean Cure for Life Rolls On I would find myself connecting and forming friendships over our common bonds-- a love and respect for the ocean.  We've watched over the past 2 years, as Ocean Cure consistently gives back to our community through charity surf camps, community events and beach/waterway cleanups.  Not only do they help people stand up (on surfboards), they also stand up for our environment... and since their work is inexplicably tied to the ocean... they stand up for the health and safety of our oceans, waves and beaches.  So on Saturday, we wanted to give back for all that Ocean Cure does for our community by throwing a Backyard Benefit Jam (aka fundraiser) for Ocean Cure.

We opened our backyard to our awesome community to have fun and raise funds for Ocean Cure to purchase such things as beach wheel chairs, adapted surfboards, and shade tents.  To do this, we had a raffle with prizes from Tidal Creek Co-op, Glass Dharma, Carolina Paddleboard, Landshark Skateboards, Sweetwater Surf Shop, Freaker USA. ReCurrents, Re-Eco, La Gemma, Primp Salonbar, Mark Herbert/Art Wasteland, Big Strong Girl Designs, Tracy Kellogg-Brodeur Photography and Bushwalla.

But like I said, we wanted to have FUN too!  So, we had our backyard set up with a 22' waterslide, a dunk tank and LIVE music by Bushwalla & Todd Carey.



Of course, keeping with my own personal commitments we made sure to create no trash by composting, recycling and using reusables.  One thing that I set out to do with this party was to reuse glass jars that I had saved.  So in lieu of disposable "red SOLO" cups, I cleaned over 100 glass jars to be used for sweet tea, homemade lemonade, beer or wine.  When the fundraiser was over, I ran the jars through my dishwasher and they are currently tucked away in a closet to be used again!

So who exactly is Ocean Cure?  Ocean Cure is a 501c3 non-profit that is dedicated to giving free surf lessons to medically fragile and at risk youth and adults.  They believe in the powerful emotional and physical healing properties of the ocean and surfing. Having been on the sidelines watching their charity surf camps and volunteering for events such as Life Rolls On: They Will Surf Again... I can tell you that Ocean Cure changes lives.

And because we want to contribute to helping them change lives, we set out to have this fundraiser.  It was an event that couldn't have been pulled off by my husband and myself alone.  A community of people came together to help make it happen and we are extremely grateful to the outpouring of support received from our community-- near and far! Thanks to all of the support we received it was a huge success... not only were we able to raise over $1500 for Ocean Cure... we had loads of fun doing it!  Yup, our first fundraiser was a huge success... we're so thankful to be part of such a giving community! 

We can't wait to do it again next year!!

Left to right: Danielle, Kevin (Ocean Cure founder), Chris (Ocean Cure founding member), Todd Carey, my husband, Bushwalla, Brandon & me :)

Special thanks to the following businesses! 

Mellow Mushroom
Flaming Amy's
Surfhouse Café and Shop
Great Harvest Bread Co
Lovey's Natural Foods & Café
Edens Produce
Planet Logo
Odysea Surf & Kiteboard School

Sippin' (the Plastic-Free Way)

"Here can you hold this for me?" I said, while handing my daughter my glass straw.  Then as I started to fill my bulk containers, I heard: Ping ping ping  It was the sound of my glass straw hitting the concrete floor (at Tidal Creek).  I cringed thinking the worst.  Ok, I wasn't panicking or anything...Glass Dharma has a lifetime guarantee... so no need to fret... but still I cringed just the same. Then as I leaned over to pick it up... I noticed that it was perfect... absolutely perfect.  No cracks, no chips... no nothing.  :)

If you've been following along, I have been saying "no thank you" to plastic straws for quite some time now... and it's been almost a year since I committed 100% to not accepting plastic straws (no ifs ands or buts)-- even in my smoothies.  Yup, from August to May I had at least one smoothie a week and not one of them was drank with a straw.  That is until I participated in the Glass Dharma Earth Day Letter Writing Initiative... and got me some glass straws.  When I first got my glass straws, I was super excited... my kids and I popped them into our waters and fun ensued.  Seriously, it had been so long since we drank from straws that we forgot how much fun it was to sip, sip, sip....

Now I'd like to tell you that I take our straws with us everywhere and use them all the time, but to be honest.... I'm really really bad at remembering to take them when we go out to eat....UNLESS, of course, I'm getting a smoothie.

Admission:  I have an addiction to smoothies.  Seriously. I sip and slurp up A LOT of smoothies with my glass straws!  

Just to let you in on my addiction.  For the past year, I've been going to yoga every Friday.  And every Friday after yoga, I get a smoothie at Tidal Creek.  I've now upped my yoga to 3 times a week... and you guessed it... that means more smoothies!!  Sometimes they're chocolate, sometimes they're fruity... but boy oh boy are they always super yummy!! :)  Of course, I used to go without a straw.... I was cool with going without....really I was... yes, even with a green smoothie mustache and a line across my nose.... I was fine.  But... you know what????!!!  Smoothies are SO much better with a straw.  A million times better!!  No doubt the smoothie tastes good no matter what... but it's honestly more pleasurable to drink using a straw.


....Says the girl who always says, "I don't need a straw." ;)


Now that I officially have a major thing for glass straws... thanks Glass Dharma!!  I feel this need to share them with everyone.  It's fun to say "glass straw" and see people get very intrigued.  BUT... even better than that is giving them to family and friends! They are definitely my new favorite thing to gift.  When my family came out to visit for my birthday, I ordered a bunch of glass straws and gifted them to my family.  Days after getting home (to Iowa), my aunt made my cousin a thick milkshake...  and sent me his response.  Thumbs up!  His favorite feature was something I hadn't even thought of:  The glass straw doesn't go flat like a plastic straw!  Woot!!

While Bushwalla was staying with us, he came home with a drink with a plastic straw...yikes!... I asked "what's up with the plastic straw??".  ...and then, being the person I am...I couldn't let him go around using plastic straws.  Friends don't let friends use single-use disposable plastics. ;)  Without hesitation, I said, "I have something for you" and gave him one of my glass straws.  He immediately started using it... and a month later is still using it!!!  Most recently during his live and online show at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf he talked about reducing the amount of plastic he uses and showed off his glass straw!  Yay Yay Yay!!  Go B!!!  (another ripple effect in progress) 

Ok... so it's been 3 months since I got my first glass straw.  I'm super grateful that Glass Dharma asked me to participate in their Earth Day letter writing initiative because thanks to the glass straw I'm back to sipping my drinks... slurping up the end of my smoothies... taking my kids to get fun things like root beer floats... all while still encouraging others to kick their plastic straw habit. :)

Hmmm... it's still early... I think I need to go make me a smoothie... ;)

Backyard Birthday Bash

Back in mid-May, my husband let me in on a secret:  He was planning a party to celebrate my 33rd birthday!!!  This was big news to me as I couldn't remember the last birthday party I had... AND... as soon as I got over the "shush, no you're not" feeling... I began to get excited.  Not only were we going to be having a Bushwalla house show... this was an opportunity to throw a different kind of party.  Normally parties create a lot of trash, because who really has enough plates, flatware, and such for 50+ people?  Red solo cups, aluminum cans, plastic flatware, paper napkins, bags of chips, and convenience foods reign during parties.  For my party, we had to do something different.  So on Saturday, June 25, we did just that.

Photo credit: Tracy Carr

In general, I have this great desire to prove (most often to myself) that when we most think we can't get around plastic... there ARE ways around it and through planning and rethinking it can be done.  Deciding to throw a party without using the typical party fare: paper plates, plastic/compostable cups, plastic cutlery, etc. takes extra thought.  The first thing we did was figure out what kind of food we wanted to have.  Based on past experiences of trying to reduce waste during parties, we immediately decided on foods that didn't need forks, spoons or knives.  Here's what we ate:  Flaming Amy's Burritos, chips with salsa, Mellow Mushroom Pizza, watermelon, cantaloup and cupcakes.  Here's how we avoided waste:  Took our own containers to Flaming Amy's for salsa, requested no plastic, composted food scraps including cupcake wrappers and the pizza and cupcake boxes :)

Another thing that I wanted to consider was filling my recycling bins with a bunch of aluminum cans and glass. Obviously, we got a keg of beer.  Then we made an easy decision:  No soda.  Instead, we had sweet tea and homemade lemonade.  We put the sweet tea in one of those big Igloo coolers (like you see get dumped on sports players). While we were at Hands Across the Sand on Saturday morning, my mom made fresh lemonade by squeezing 50 something lemons!  Then we filled reused glass juice jars that I had saved with the lemonade.  The lemonade could be poured from or drank directly from the bottle.  It was SO yummy!!  Check it out... can you guess how much I LOVE lemonade??? ;)

Oh right... so what did we eat on and drink from?? At first we thought about going to Goodwill and buying extra plates, but after the suggestion from a friend... we ended up renting plates and glasses.  Seriously.  What was awesome about renting was that we didn't have to do any dishes.  We just put the plates and glasses in their respective trays and took them back to the party rental place!

Photo by: Gabrielle Lyons

The party was SO much fun... everything turned out better than I could have ever anticipated.  We created  zero-trash and I would guarantee that nobody felt like they missed out on anything or realized that we were striving to go plastic-free. (Ok... there were a few people that knew what was up ;) ) Now... I can't end this post without mentioning how amazing Bushwalla was is.  Not only is he an extremely talented artist and an amazing performer... he's also like-minded.  What I mean by "like-minded" is that he's eco-conscious.  While at Hands Across the Sand, he was exactly like me... stopping to pick up every piece of litter he saw... even the cigarette butts!  He even wanted to do a 20 minute beach clean up with me!  (Bummed we didn't get to it, but no doubt there will be another time!) Turns out that he's been wanting to start doing beach clean ups in San Diego for quite sometime... and now he's feeling inspired to get it started!  YAY!!!  So if you don't know "who" Bushwalla is... go check out his music and support this eco-friendly, funky, soulful, hip-hoptimistic, being love musician...entertainer....artist.

Gratitude to all of my family and friends who shared my birthday with me... I had an absolute blast!! 33 is going to be good... real good... I just know it :)