Friends of the Dunes Invite Schools to their Annual “Kids Oceans Day”

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Kids Oceans Day, much like World Oceans Week, is a time for awareness and action.

This upcoming Thursday (06/08) is a chance for kids around the coast to learn and discover ways to help and protect our oceans.

Redwood News spoke with Emily Baxter, the Education Coordinator of Friends of the Dunes, to find out more. 

Kids Ocean Day is a statewide marine debris education event, coordinated through four other agencies throughout the state,” Baxter said. “So all the way from San Diego to up here.thousands of kids throughout the state to participate in being stewards.”

Friends of the Dunes has offered this program to Humboldt County youth for 18 years.

“It started actually in the mid-nineties down in L.A. and then around 2005, Friends of the Dunes started doing it as well,” Baxter said. “We lost a couple of years with Covid, but last year we came back and this year is the 18th annual.”

The non-profit organization has prepared fun activities and even a clean-up on the dunes and beach.

“There will be around 700 kids from all around the county that go to the south spit and when they get there, they’ll do a trash cleanup and voluntary restoration,” Baxter said. 

“They’ll head out to the beach and sit in an aerial art formation–this year, the image that they’re going to be shaping is a snowy plover with the message, Give Us A Chance, and that message is shared from all of the sites that participate.”

This event is entirely free for schools.

“This event is kind of an extension of the adopt a beach program through the California Coastal Commission, so the Protect Our Coasts and Oceans Fund through the Whale Tail License Program funds these trips,” Baxter said. “So it’s a completely free event for all the kids, nobody has to pay to be able to come on the field trip.”

When asked what the goal of this trip was Baxter replied with: 

“To get kids outside and participate in caring for the world we live in.”

For more information visit: friendsofthedunes.org 

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