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We had a great turnout the last two weekends at our beach clean up events with Assemblywoman Diane Dixon and her office. We picked up a little under 200 lbs of trash between the two events. Thank you everyone who came out and helped make a difference!  See you at the next clean up! #maketheseatrashfree

Today (Sept 20) is California Surfing Day and Senator Janet Nguyen awarded some amazing people in the surf scene awards tonight. I was included for my beach clean ups I do every week. Thank you Senator Janet Nguyen and Assemblywoman Diane Dixon for the awards tonight! I’m very proud to get these awards and look forward to our future beach clean ups together.

I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had a chance to post about our road trip until now. We had such a fun time looking for fossils last year at American Fossil in Kemmerer, Wyoming that we went back again this year too. We found about 90 fossils and I found a really big one about the size (and shape) of a football. We took my friend Scot with us who filmed our adventure and we’ll post on YouTube soon. He’s fun to hang out with – I’m glad he joined us. If you’re looking for a fun adventure, I really recommend checking out American Fossil at www.fishdig.com – I’m already planning out my 2025 trip to dig for more fossils. The fish we found are approx 52 million years old and there was a giant lake in the area at that time. I think they told us it was 200 miles long by 50 miles wide. The rocks are limestone so you can break them open pretty easily with some tools and then we cut them on a table saw. My mom thinks we’re crazy for bringing home so many fossils. Last weekend we soaked them in a glue/water solution to protect them. They’re wrapped up in bubble wrap and packaged in the garage until I can figure out what I want to do with them.

It was my first time visiting Grand Tetons and Yellowstone so that was pretty cool. I saw a bunch of Bison, a Moose, Old Faithful Geyser, thermal pools and a bunch of other animals. It was really pretty there. The colorful thermal pools are from the bacteria in the water. It’s really hot. We went hiking and the weather was awesome. Interesting fact: The day after we left, one of the regular geysers blew up that we had gone too. Nobody was hurt but it did a lot of damage.

I hung out with my grandma and I went camping with my uncle and caught my first fish (I didn’t eat it because I don’t like fish), toured a recycling center and had dinner with my friend Margaret in Jackson, Wyoming, visited Four Corners Monument where you can stand in 4 states at the same time, I visited the Petrified Forest and Meteor Crater, AZ. Both were amazing. We stayed in Sedona (which was really cool) and I filmed a video with my friends at Pivot Cycles in Tempe, AZ about their sustainability efforts that will be coming out soon. They have a self serve ice cream machine in their break room. How cool is that?!

States traveled through on this trip: California > Nevada > Arizona > Utah > Wyoming > Idaho > Montana > Colorado > New Mexico. We drove about 3000 miles and had a fun time but I was glad to get back home and see my mom.

Thank you to everyone who participated inProject3R’s 5 in 5 Cleanup Tour! We completed five clean ups in 5 weekends, starting with Dockweiler Beach in Los Angeles, then Huntington Beach, San Clemente, Ensenada, Mexico and wrapping it up in Oceanside.

We are so grateful for all of our amazing sponsors and volunteers who made this possible. Our goal was to collect 1,000 pounds of trash from the coastline, and we surpassed that with a total trash count of 1,769 pounds! All of the recyclable items were sorted from the trash at each cleanup and over 100 abandoned beach toys were separated to be cleaned up and donated. A huge shout out to the following companies for supporting us for this 5 event campaign. You helped make this happen.

STRUT CARES / ATHENS SERVICES / KYA GROUP / SUN BUM / MARES FOUNDATION / POLYWOOD
ANAHEIM DUCKS FOUNDATION / PLANTLIFE / RAINBOW SANDALS FOUNDATION / TEEN VIBES MAGAZINE
SENATOR JANET NGUYEN / SENATOR CATHERINE BLAKESPEAR

And of course, our amazing volunteer squad starting with our Youth Leadership Board and everyone who came out and made a big difference at each event. Thank you to the Orange County Register for highlighting the events.

More photos at each event posted in our photo gallery page. I’m taking a few months off of organizing big beach clean up efforts but everyone is always welcome to join me on Sunday evenings at Doheny Beach in Dana Point, CA when I do my weekly beach clean ups. Just send me an email if you’d like to join me. #maketheseatrashfree

This week I was featured on the SIMPLE ACTS, BIG IMPACT podcast with host, Natalie Silverstein. I had a fun time talking to her and you can listen to the podcast here.

Ryan Hickman developed a passion for recycling before he was in elementary school; now a ninth-grader at San Juan Hills High, he’s educated thousands of his peers around the globe on why they should care about keeping plastics and other debris out of the ocean.

“The trash ends up in the ocean, and animals are eating it,” the 14-year-old said. “Picking up a piece of trash may save a turtle’s life.”

And, he’s picked up more than a piece. Since 2012, he estimates that he and others who helped him have collected some 2 million bottles and cans from beaches, lakes and rivers.

On Saturday, April 20, Hickman, with a bunch of volunteers who follow him and Project 3R, the nonprofit he created, will start a five-week campaign to remove trash from five beaches along the Southern California coast and from some in Mexico. The effort kicks off at Dockweiler Beach in Playa Del Rey, and will include other teen influencers among the volunteers.

READ MORE…

Thank you Capistrano Dispatch for featuring the latest story about Project3R in your Green Issue. FUN FACT: The first time I was interviewed was actually for the Green Issue in 2016. Read the full article here (page 18-19)