Our Daily Ocean: Day 102

After over 20 days, I finally made it back out to Wrightsville Beach last night to do my 102nd beach clean up!!!  My husband and three kids had some things to do... so, it was just "me" and one of our brand new beach clean up bags straight from Green Bag Lady!!

Teresa (Green Bag Lady) made special beach bags for several of us that do beach clean ups... and sent us 5 for our family to use!!  Now, I attempted to make a video showing what sets Green Bag Lady Beach Bags apart from the rest... but *sigh* I just can't listen to my recorded voice!! (must figure out how they made me sound good in my FilterForGood film ;) )  Anyhow, the bags are made of vinyl with MESH bottoms... a mesh bottom means that all of the sand falls through and stays where it's supposed to-- the beach!!!  YAY!!  No more piles of sand in my driveway!!  Thanks so much Teresa!! I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE our new beach bags!! So AWESOME!!!! :)

When I saw this single use plastic spoon on the beach last night, I immediately thought of the poster-- "The Spoon" by Max Temkin-- that I shared on my FB page back in September. (Thanks Sean!)  If you haven't seen the poster, check it out here.  It may seem like an absolute no brainer to not use disposable plasticware, but it's easy to get stuck using the stuff.  So... my advice: Either buy a nice travel set of utensils or grab some out of your drawer and keep them handy! Please and thank you :) 

Still picking up cigarette butts on Wrightsville Beach... and still no resolution as to how the Town of WB is planning on dealing with the problem.  As beach season is now over, I have no doubts that this issue will be (once again) put off until next season... guess I'll be at this longer than I anticipated.  

No worries though, because I decided a few months ago that I'm going to continue doing the 20 minute beach clean ups until Sara finishes her 365 non-consecutive day goal.  (She just finished up with Day 227)  Here's to at least another year... and our awesome awesome community! :)

20 minutes on October 23, 2011 at Access 29

Litter by weight: 1 lb 9.6 oz

Cigarette butts: 132

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 102 days:

35,411 

Our Daily Ocean: Day 85

A year ago yesterday, one mom (that's "me") and three kids went to Wrightsville Beach, NC to start an experiment.  Pick up litter for 20 minutes and count the amount of cigarette butts we find.  August 9, 2010 we picked up 346 cigarette butts in 20 minutes....a year later, we've picked up an additional 25,454 cigarette butts... (!! insane, I know !!)  Last night, we headed back (with some help) to that same spot where it all started....

A lot happened this past year... a lot of AMAZING wonderful things have happened.  Not long after I published my first post, I started to receive comments and emails from people telling me that this blog was going to have a bigger impact than I knew...  (they were right)

Then in mid-September, on a whim, before I really knew anything about how bad cigarette litter really is... I entered my project in the Brita FilterForGood Film Project.  It's now been 8 months since three amazing and talented guys came and filmed our family of five for 3 days to make a short film meant to motivate and inspire people to become active in their own communities...



Over the past year, I helped get BaitTanks installed at WB, went to the Sundance Film Festival, got messages from friends saying they saw me on the Sundance Channel (!!), ...but best of all... I've gotten emails from all over the world from people sharing with me how what I'm doing has inspired them and what things they're doing to help clean up our world.  I am so thankful for every person that has taken the time to reach out to me...  in the moments when I'm so over picking up cigarettes or doubt that what I'm doing matters... it's your words that help keep me motivated :)

In saying that, I've connected with the MOST amazingly supportive and inspiring people (I really want to make a list, but it would be SO long and I know that you all know who you are :) )... proof to me that when we give without expectations... the most amazing "gifts" come barreling towards us... it's true that we indeed "get what we give."  I have so much gratitude for every person who has joined my family and me at Wrightsville Beach this past year to help make it a little bit cleaner -- including our neighbors who helped us clean up last night.  :)

...reminiscing is fun.  I'm just feeling so much gratitude for the past year... this project has gotten more attention than I ever could have ever imagined... Thanks to all of the media outlets and bloggers who have taken the time to do a story on this mom trying to make a difference in our world. :)

Hmmm... if you know me personally... you know how I would often say, "I'm *just* a mom" ... but so much has changed because of this simple project.  So when earlier in the year I saw this quote I felt it completely summed up this whole "Our Daily Ocean" year:

"When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and your discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be." ~Patanjali

I didn't know what would happen when I decided to do something... in fact, I still don't.  I'm not sure how long we'll be picking up and counting cigarette butts....  I don't have a time frame for making a difference.  I do what I can do... as much as I can do...  and remind myself that it all started with reaching out to a stranger, then taking time to pick up one...

20 minutes on August 9, 2011 at Access 43

Litter by weight: 5 lbs .9 oz
Cigarette butts: 378

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 85 days:

25,800

Inspired

Our Daily Ocean: Day 29

Hmmmm... where to start???  The past two days have been unlike any other days that I have ever had... or will ever have.  Who would've ever guessed that picking up after other people would make all of this happen... but here I am... here we are...

Ron, Destin, (me), and Brett with my 3 kids... can you tell we're all freezing?!?!
(Thanks to my amazingly supportive husband for taking the photo!!)

I spent my morning doing interviews and showing off my over 11,000 cigarette butts for the short film that is being made because my project was voted as a winner in the Brita FilterForGood Film Project.  I'm extremely grateful for this opportunity... and can't even begin to put into words what the experience really means to me... hmmmm.... something like this:

"As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over. So in a series of kindness there is, at last, one which makes the heart run over." ~ James Boswell 

My heart is running over :)

As usual, Wrightsville Beach was absolutely beautiful... the sky was so stunning.  I wish I had more pictures... BUT...with everything going on... picture reality TV crew or paparazzi...  I forgot my camera in my car. :(  Oh well... the whole thing was filmed...YAY!!.... and that's even better than me taking photos of countless bits of litter and cigarette butts.

Brett took this photo of a littered balloon for me... Thanks Brett!! :)

Oh... and completely have to say how cold it was at Wrightsville Beach.  Could it have been worse??  Definitely, but still 39˚ is too cold for this girl!!  (My feet are missing my Rainbows!!)  So.... when we walked onto the beach, I made the joke that we should just pick up for about 10 minutes and leave.  But, of course, we didn't.  There was surprisingly too much to pick up (and my kids were having so much fun being filmed).  With it being so cold... even at Access 16...I had this thought that it wasn't going to be that bad...that we weren't going to find much to pick up...

I guess I was wrong.

20 minutes on December 8, 2010
Litter by weight: 12.8oz
Cigarette Butts: 262

Total amount of cigarette butts picked up off of Wrightsville Beach, NC in 29 days: 

11,594