Cleanup event aims to round up students

June Casagrande

Any area school kids who don’t know about Upper Newport Bay

Coastal Cleanup Day certainly will by the first week of school. The

Newport Bay Naturalists and Friends this week are sending out 18,000

fliers to the Newport-Mesa and Irvine unified school district

schools, all in the hopes of getting kids involved in the environment

for Coastal Cleanup Day and for life.

“This is a working day and an educational fun day for the kids,”

said Kathy Painter of the Naturalists and Friends. “It’s these kids

who’ll be taking care of us and taking care of the environment for

years to come.”

The school blitz is just part of the gearing-up efforts now

underway for the Sept. 21 event when about 1,300 children and adult

volunteers will scour the coast to pick up trash between 8 a.m. and 1

p.m. Like volunteers, sponsors are a big part of what makes Cleanup

Day go round.

Sponsors already signed up and paid up include Pacific Life,

Mimi’s Cafe, Taylor and Associates, the Newport Beach Police

Employees’ Assn. and the city of Newport Beach. Sponsorships cost

from $300 to $1,000 each and earn the donor organization a logo on

the back of the official Cleanup Day T-shirts and sweatshirts.

Wienerschnitzel will feed the volunteers.

The Upper Newport Bay Coastal Cleanup Day is just one of many

cleanup events taking place all along the California Coast. In

Newport, there are actually three separate events. In addition to

Upper Newport Bay cleanup, there are also cleanups in Crystal Cove

and Corona del Mar.