Saturday, May 2, 2015

Military Care Packages in Honor of National Military Appreciation Month

Overview:  To call life difficult on base in Afghanistan or Iraq means little as we sit in Orange County wondering if we’ll make dinner tonight or get takeout. The landscape is nothing but dirt and rocks. Temperatures will soon be soaring above 120۫. And then there’s the war, a war in which suicide bombers or hidden explosives kill without warning. Many of us push aside the hardships our troops face – or forget about them entirely. Not Kristi’s Hope! Relying on only donations and the kindness of strangers and supporters we work hard to remind you about their sacrifices. We work hard to show our appreciation.
Objective: Congress designated May as National Military Appreciation Month in 1999 to ensure the nation was given the opportunity to publicly demonstrate their appreciation for the sacrifices and successes made by our service members - past and present. Kristi's Hope has teamed up with Operation Troop Support and invited volunteers to join us in putting together care packages for our deployed troops! 

Result: For a few weeks donations were dropped off and volunteers started RSVP’ing to help fill the care packages. On May 2nd volunteers met at the park to fill 105 packages with donated items such as hygiene products, fun snacks,healthy snacks, entertainment items like puzzles, books, magazines etc.children created letters/cards drawings thanking the soldiers for their service/sacrifice and at least one was included in each package.

NOTE: A special thank you to Critical Cords for their generous donation of 100 bracelets for the troops. One was included in each bag. Also, a special thank you to Marlene Blaue who donated a bunch of items from her Marine Care package project in which she has shipped off well over 2,500 care packages.

On Wednesday May 6th the packages were boxed up and shipped out to Operation Give based out of Salt Lake City, UT. They will take the packages and send them to individual troops who are deployed across the world. 


Family Beach Clean Up Day

Overview: Beach cleanups are a fun and easy way to volunteer your time by helping to keep our beaches and ocean clean!

Marine debris is more than an unsightly inconvenience for beach-bound vacationers or pleasure boaters; it’s one of the world’s most pervasive marine population problems. Through the simple process of moving from ship to sea, sewer to surf,or hand to sand, any manufactured material becomes marine debris. Cigarette butts, fishing line, diapers, tampon applicators, six-pack rings, bottles and cans, syringes, tires-the litany of litter is as varies as the products available in the global market place, but it all shares a common origin. At a critical decision point, someone, somewhere, mishandled it– either thoughtlessly or deliberately.Many people mistakenly believe that oceangoing vessels are the major source of marine debris. On the contrary, 60 to 80% of the trash that pollutes the world’s waters originates on land. Literally tons of it foul our beaches, main and kill marine animals and threaten water quality.

Objective: In honor of Earth Day, Kristi’s Hope sent out an open invite and encouraged families to spend the day outside, together while cleaning up our local beaches. Bags, hand sanitizer and a gorgeous view were provided.

Result: Several families showed up with gloves and buckets/bags ready to make a difference, ready to clean up our beaches and make it a safe place for families and wild life to enjoy.

* The ocean is the largest life-sustaining resource on our planet.
* Plastic marine debris affects at least 267 species world wise, including 86% of all seal turtle species, 44% of all sea bird species and 43% of marine mammal species.
* Plastic marine debris takes hundreds of years to break down and may never fully biodegrade.
* Birds,fish, and mammals often mistake plastic and other debris for food, which can lead to fatal consequences.
* Many animals have difficulty digesting plastic, so the plastic remains in the animals stomach, which makes the animal feel full and can lead to the animal starving to death.
* Each man,woman and child in the U.S. produces 3-7lbs of trash each day.
* During a recent summer,  Orange County collected enough garbage from 6 miles of beach to fill 10 garbage trucks full of trash every week.
* For every item we recycle or reuse, that’s one less piece of trash that can become a part of the marine debris cycle threatening people and wildlife.
* Bolsa Chica & Huntington State Beach employ a garbage company that hand sorts all of our trash for recyclables, so that you do not have to worry about sorting the recyclables that you pick up.