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Adopt a Beach!

You are invited to get involved in a stewardship and data collection program that’s new to Cleveland – Adopt-a-Beach! The program is a good service learning opportunity and a fun and easy way for schools, community groups and businesses to help keep the Great Lakes healthy. Training sessions will be held in April and May. Supplemental curriculum activities are available as part of the program. Please inform others that you think may be interested about this opportunity.

As an adopter, your group commits to multiple visits during a year, and at each visit you participate in a beach cleanup, collect important beach health data using science-based investigations and report findings to the Alliance for the Great Lakes.

By participating in the program and collecting data, you can make a difference in the real-world arena of beach health. Here’s how:

1. Data Collection Forms – Collect data during your visits to make positive changes at your beach. In order for the data to make the biggest possible difference for beach health, the Alliance has aligned the forms to national beach data collection forms that are being used by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. By collecting standardized data you can help identify and eliminate pollution sources that harm our beaches.

2. Beach Cleanup – Conduct a beach cleanup to make your beach cleaner and safer. Record information gathered during the cleanup on the data collection form.

3. Web Site Database – After each beach visit, enter your data into the Alliance’s online database. The Alliance is currently upgrading our database to a more streamlined system to help us make better use of our volunteers’ data, as well as enable us to better build a community of people who care about the Great Lakes.

4. Training Workshops – To help volunteers make the most of the new forms and website, Adopt-a-Beach will offer trainings throughout the year and we encourage you to attend a session near you. We provide supplemental tools for adopters located in areas where trainings are not available.

After two or three visits, adopters are encouraged to examine their data and develop an action project to improve conditions at their beach, a process we can assist with.

To register your team for this program, please choose a beach that’s convenient or of special interest to you, and reply to Stephanie Smith by email or phone: 312-939-0838. We look forward to hearing from you!

Stephanie Smith
312-939-0838
SSmith@greatlakes.org