Holy Trash…and Chemicals in Your Face!
Posted in client stories events messages from maui by on Oct 27 2010Our newspaper headline would read, “Remarkable turn-out and trash collecting for first annual North Shore Clean Up and +H2O launch.” The North Shore Clean Up was a HUGE success, and I reveal some numbers below. A launch for +H2O, the event was in collaboration with Community Work Day’s “Get the Draft and Bag It” island wide campaign and in partnership with Surfrider Foundation Maui Chapter. A great example of just how much can be done when a community is mobilized…THANKS TO ALL WHO PARTICIPATED, please check out the +H20 blog post here to see supporting partners and sponsors.
HOLY TRASH! Just what was recorded by Community Work Day for our clean up efforts: 4 hours – 169 volunteers – 4 miles – 13,400 pounds of trash of solid wastes and metals including 8 recovered cars – 1713 cigarette butts – drug pipes and syringes – 212 food wrappers – 159 plastic bags – 339 caps and bottle lids. That is the abridged listing. The North Shore of Maui is now a much cleaner, and safer, place.
HOLY DOLLARS! $3500 raised at Elevate Party to benefit +H20 Water Charities Fund to build a well for a future international project and $500 donated by Ocean Vodka for +H2O to collaborate with Surfrider Foundation Maui Chapter on a local clean water initiative.
+H20 is well on its way to making some waves locally and internationally, uniting a global network of passionate water enthusiasts dedicated to clean water and clean living initiatives for communities around the world. Based on Maui, Hawaii, the +H2O network celebrates the sport of windsurfing and extends inspiration for clean living practices that are in support of health, wellness and environmental balance. +H2O is proud to be working with Water Charity, a high impact international organization with a proven track record of successful clean water projects in communities around the world. The +H2O Water Charity fund has been created to fund selected projects in specified surf locations as chosen by the +H2O watermen team. To be part of the +H20 community, check them out on Facebook or the website and learn more.
More pictures can be found at Grace Delivers’ Facebook photo album of event here.
So, in the world of Grace Delivers, we continue to be blessed with amazing projects, surrounded by inspiring people and embraced by the beauty of the natural environment. Ain’t life grand!
BUT our newspaper headline could read: ”Chemicals blowing in your face? Just a thwarted attempt to ruin a clean water initiative and community clean up party.”
As over 120 people started to gather to check in for the North Shore Clean Up at Baldwin Beach Park on a busy Saturday morning on the North Shore of Maui, Hawaii, people were dumbstruck as they watched a helicopter come low and near to do TWO rounds of what we can assume to be pesticide/herbicide spraying on the sugar cane fields. Chemicals dumped on the community- adults and children at a state park- as they gather for a clean up and the launch of +H2O, a clean water initiative activism project. The irony.
The wind was blowing ferociously and onlookers noticed a chemical smell, commented on feeling lightheaded and nauseous. There were lots of questions. What was that spraying in the wind? Was it dangerous to our health? Why did they only choose the one spot, and hit it twice, located just feet from a community park in the late morning on a busy Saturday? Just hundreds of yards from our ocean? Literally, almost on top of a gathering of people. Although this type of aerial spraying practice is known to happen and its safety is MUCH debated, no one had ever seen it at that time of day, so close, with so many people in the range of being affected. See for yourself, you will understand our concern.
The irony of it? The North Shore Clean Up was organized to launch +H20, a global community of water enthusiasts dedicated to raising awareness for clean water initiatives, started here on Maui by a group of windsurfing icons, Levi Siver, Jake Miller, Keith Teboul and Pascal Bronniman. It is a known fact that the leaching of chemicals from agricultural spraying into groundwater is a major source of water pollution.
In regards to the chemical spraying…we’d like some answers. If a representative from Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. would like to contact me, I would be happy to let everyone know that our worst fears are not confirmed. We hope that they would make corporate decisions to operate with more discretion about chemical spraying, respect for the community and health and well-being of the citizens of Maui. Perhaps their actions are in accordance with rules and regulations, but if that’s the case, our group of community do-gooders (including representatives from +H20, Surfrider Foundation Maui Chapter, Community Work Day, local and national businesses and more) would like to object and propose that they operate with more consciousness.
