Happy Holidays and 2012 Round Up

Aloha Plastic Free Supporters,
Below is a round up of this year's events. Thank you all for your support, and we look forward to more great programming and community fun in 2013!

Highlights
Capt. Moore visits Kailua's BookEnds on his Plastic Ocean book tour!

April Clean Up with Surfrider and other community partners yields over 125 volunteers, 435 pounds of debris and trash.

September Kailua Bay International Coastal Clean Up with Sustainable Coastlines and many community partners yields over 700 volunteers and 1740 pounds of debris and litter! GO Kailua! Full details here: SCH.org

December's Microplastic Challenge was a new and fun event at Kalama Beach Park. We sifted giant jars of microplastic and awards prizes to each age division. A timely event as the presence of microplastics in Kailua received some recent press in the Star Advertiser.

This year we cultivated our partnership with Ocean Devotion and Kailua Sailboards and Kayaks to present free community movie nights in July (Bag It), August (Message in the Waves), October (The Rain Follows the Forest), and November (HI Monk Seals). These two partners have been doing amazing work in our community, even invasive species removal on the Mokes!

Also in our Kailua hui, we send Congratulations to our partners at Muumuu Heaven on their John Kelly Award from Surfrider Foundation. They are given the Environmentally Friendly Hawaii-Based Company Award for their contribution to help Hawai‘i’s coral reefs. As well, we'd like to thank Global Village and Whole Foods for their continued support.

Mahalo everyone! Now take time to Simplify the Holidays and we'll catch you in the new year.

December Beach Clean Up

We are celebrating the end of a great year and all of our wonderful volunteers in the Kailua community.

Join in for a Micro-Plastic CHALLENGE with hot dogs, a potluck, and PRIZES!! Help us sift for and collect the smallest pieces of degraded plastic pollution on our beach and compete to fill your jar with the most!

Saturday, December 1st 
9am-11am
at Kalama Beach Park

Sign in starts at 9:00am
Join us at 11:00 for the measuring of the Micro-Plastic, hot dogs provided by Ocean Devotion Hawaii, a low impact pot luck and PRIZES from our awesome sponsors Kailua Sailboards and Kayaks, MuuMuu Heaven, Global Village, Unlucky HI and TikiMaster.com. *Note our new location and time.

What to bring: hat, sunscreen, refillable water bottle, gloves, and anything you can use to sift plastic from the sand like an old collander. We could also use some more large jars (clear plastic or glass). 

Please contribute to our potluck if you can. Remember we strive to be low waste so finger food and your own utensils welcome.

RSVP on Facebook and help spread the word!

November 15th Kailua Movie Night

Join us for a FREE community evening event with talk-story, keiki crafts, pupus, presentations and films from local conservation groups, and more! It's all happening at Kailua Sailboards and Kayaks, 130 Kailua Road, on Thursday November 15th from  6:00pm - 8:00pm. This month we will be featuring presentations and short films by Hawaiian Monk Seal Response Team Oahu and NOAA on how to protect and help our fabulous furry friend the Hawaiian Monk Seal. We'll also have a brief presentation by Sustainable Coastlines Hawai'i on the successful International Coastal Cleanup of Kailua Bay in September. Ocean Devotion will be hosting keiki games and crafts starting at 6pm. Get there early for free pizza from Bob's too! Contact plasticfree@kokuahawaiifoundation.org for more information. RSVP on Facebook.

October Events

We are pleased to showcase two exciting October Plastic Free events! 

Plastic Free Movie Night

Join us for another  Kailua community movie night with talk-story, keiki crafts, pupus, presentations from local conservation groups, and more! Thursday, October 18th, 6-8pm, at Kailua Sailboards and Kayaks.

We'll have a presentation by Hui o Ko'olaupoko about their important work on our watersheds. Join Ocean Devotion early at 6pm for keiki games and crafts. Free Pizza from Bob's too!

This month we will be featuring the film "The Rain Follows the Forest" by Hawaii DLNR: "Catch Jason Scott Lee as he sets out on a journey to learn about sustainable life in our island home. Through interesting conversations, he learns about Hawaii's fragile fresh water supply and discovers connections to our upland forest environment." RSVP on Facebook.

Captain Charles Moore Returns to Hawai'i

Join us on Sunday, October 14th from 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm at University Laboratory School as Captain Charles Moore makes his final stop in Hawai'i for the "The Plastic Pollution Conversation - Pacific Rim Tour 2012." Captain Moore, author of "Plastic Ocean," is a prominent seafaring environmentalist and researcher who shares his maritime encounters with the shocking amount of plastic debris in the Northeast Pacific Ocean, now commonly referred to as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The goal of the Pacific Rim Tour 2012 is to raise the intensity of awareness about plastic pollution, its impact, the challenges it presents and motivate individuals and groups to effect change. He will be discussing the recently completed Algalita/5 Gyres 2012 Asia Pacific Expedition through the Western Pacific Garbage Patch and the southern edge of the 2011 tsunami material swept to sea making its way across the North Pacific Gyre. Read more about the Tour here.

Don't miss these FREE events open to the public! For more info contact plasticfree@kokuahawaiifoundation.org.