Kids Beach Day Teaches Children about the Environment

More than 3,000 children flocked to Dockweiler Beach for the annual "Kids Ocean Day Adopt-a-Beach Clean-up."

Thursday’s big celebration was the culmination of a yearlong effort to teach kids about the environment and the harmful effects pollution can have on it.

This year marked the 20th anniversary of the event which is the brainchild of Michael Klubock, president of the Malibu Foundation for Environmental Education. Throughout the school year, Klubock visits different LAUSD schools, giving assemblies on beaches and the environmental hazards of pollution.

"It’s an awareness campaign that we do through the schools and through education and making the kids aware of the beauty of the ocean, first, and then to show the damage that’s being done to the animals and the streets and the ocean through our action,” Klubock said.

Kids Ocean Day, which was organized by the Malibu Foundation as well as the City of Los Angeles, Spectral Q, Keep L.A. Beautiful and the California Coastal Commission in Los Angeles, consisted of children helping rid the beach of plastic and other pollutants. It then culminated with them, along with their teachers and volunteers, gathering to form an aerial image of a drawing done by Adam Mendoza, an eighth grader from Monte Vista School in El Monte, Calif.

The beach day was also especially meaningful given the fact that about 10 percent of the children from over the years have never been to a beach before, according to Klubock.

Seeing the kids enjoy the beach and all it has to offer during Kids Ocean Day was a personal highlight for him.

"It’s my energy source to be amongst all of that excitement and be amongst kids who really clearly looked at me and said, thank you for coming to our schools," Klubock said. "It just gives me such a source of life and satisfaction in what I do."

Marina del Rey Patch: follow us on Facebook | Twitter | E-mail Updates