During the spring semester, Star Community School and Cypress high school students cleaned up the east side of Santa Cruz!
With heavy rains and atmospheric rivers kicking off the start of the year, classrooms did their best to get out and pick up debris that flowed down the watershed and made their way to our coastlines. Star Community School students and teachers did a walking cleanup (the first we’ve done in this program) from the hook at Pleasure Point all along the sidewalks and streets to Rockview Drive and back! Students scoured bushes, storm drains, and scenic lookouts, picking up cigarette butts, smoking accessories, and other trash.
After handling multiple reschedules due to dangerous weather conditions, Cypress High School students scoured Sunny Cove and surrounding streets and sidewalks for tobacco-related waste and other debris. Special to note, Cypress students cleaned the parking lot of the Starbucks near Sunny Cove and found a nest of HUNDREDS of cigarette butts thrown over the side of the parking lot wall. Those butts were heading directly toward Sunny Cove and would have otherwise ended up on the beach or in the ocean. Students picked up over 750 cigarette butts in just a few hours.
Thank you Star and Cypress for keeping our beautiful shores and bay clean and safe for all to enjoy this summer!
