On September 15th the Surfrider Foundation announced that platinum singer-songwriter Colbie Caillat has partnered with Surfrider as an official supporter!
As supporter, Colbie is working with Surfrider to promote the organization and increase awareness about the importance of marine protected areas. Colbie is currently on tour in support of her new release, Breakthrough, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts. She has invited Surfrider's chapters to set up outreach tables at selected cities on her tour, which began on September 15th and wraps up at the end of October.
For a complete list of tour dates, go here.
“We are extremely excited to be working with Colbie,” says Matt McClain, Surfrider Foundation’s Director of Marketing and Communications. “We are looking forward to working with her so that she can share her passion and enthusiasm for marine life and environments with her fans.”
Growing up in Malibu overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Colbie’s relationship began with the beach the moment she was born. Throughout her childhood, and to this day, Colbie and her family vacation on Kauai; walking the pristine beaches and enjoying the ocean. The beach is a place she retreats to when writing, and the salt water, cool breeze and grainy sand beneath her feet makes her feel at home. That sense of ease and nature underlies the mellow laid-back songs that have made her one of today’s most popular recording artists.
“The ocean has played such an important role in my life and musical career, it is disheartening to know that the health of some of our most gorgeous beaches and beautiful waves is at risk,” Colbie warns. “Only five minutes from where I was born, the Surfrider Beach in Malibu is one of the most polluted in the country. By joining up with the Surfrider Foundation, I’m able to make a difference and help protect our coastlines for future generations.”
The Malloy brothers directed a really funny video that was shot on a beach north of Malibu, for Colbie's new single "Fallin' For You." You can watch it here.
Alexis Henry, Surfrider's Communications Manager, worked with Colbie's management and Sarah Savage of On Board Entertainment in order to coordinate an outreach tent for the San Francisco Chapter at Radio Alice 97.3 FM's Now & Zen Festival. Thanks, all!
The festival took place on Sunday, September 27th at Sharon Meadow in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California from 11am - 6pm. The artists performing included Dashboard Confessional, Howie Day, Colbie, and Train.
The Surfrider San Francisco Chapter was one of three nonprofits there - the other two were Conservation Value and Amnesty International. Sarah hooked us up with a great booth spot, next to the bands' merchandise tent and the VIP tent, and within close proximity to the stage. The festival provided us with a tent, folding table, chair, and allowed us to pull onto the lawn to load and unload our gear, and then provided us with a VIP parking spot. It was a really well-run event, and we were very thankful to get to participate in it.
Thanks to the very awesome Surfrider volunteers who helped out at the festival - Cristin, Mellie, Rachel, Jules and Victorianna!! Plus our mascots Fritz and Shorty who got a lot of attention from dog-loving fans. We had so much fun!
photo: Jules, Victorianna, Cristin, Nicole.
photo: Rachel, Victorianna, Cristin, Mellie, Nicole.
When the festival gates opened at 11am, we watched mostly teenage girls run to the front of the stage, to secure a good spot on the grass, in preparation for Colbie's 1:45pm set. By the time she took the stage the lawn was full for as far as I could see!
When fans stopped by our booth I'd ask them who they had come to see. I really enjoyed watching them smile when they said Colbie's name:) I had fun comparing notes with them about favorite Colbie songs, and hearing them talk about the duet with Taylor Swift, and other concerts they'd gone to. They were super cute!!! It was fun to watch Colbie's fans smile really big when we talked about Colbie's connection to the ocean, and I told them about Colbie's partnership with Surfrider, and specifically the outreach that we were doing on the Breakthrough Tour. Everyone who stopped at our booth - not just her fans - thought that was very cool. Yeah, Colbie! :)
Before the gates opened Colbie's Lighting Director, Joel, stopped by our tent to introduce himself and to tell us how much he loves Surfrider. He came back several times during the day to hang out and learn more about our chapter. We really enjoyed meeting him!
We were busy talking with fans from the moment that the gates opened until after the music had ended. I couldn't believe how busy we were! It was FANTASTIC! We handed out our beach cleanup calendar postcards, talked with fans about plastics in the ocean, commercial fishing practices (fans specifically asked about shrimp harvesting), shark fining, distributed the Monterey Bay Aquarium-produced Seafood wallet-sized guides, showed photos of a bird who died as a result of marine debris, had 73 fans sign a petition stating that they support a tax on plastic bags, collected 2.5 pages of email addresses for the San Francisco Chapter's e-newsletter mailing list, sold 10 Surfrider t-shirts, 1 sweatshirt, and 6 branded Chico bags, resulting in $265 for the chapter.
We also played a fun game with 3 jars of plastic items collected at 3 different beaches - one jar was from a San Francisco cleanup, another from a cleanup in Indonesia, and the third from a cleanup in El Salvador.
If a fan could correctly identify which jar came from which location, then the fan won a Chico bag to encourage the fan to use reusable bags instead of plastic bags.
It was really fun to see families and friends swirl the contents of the jars around and puzzle out which jar came from which location, and to hear their reasoning for how they arrived at their "final answers."
It was also really great to see some kids play the game and talk with us, and then come back with their friends and family members later on in the day so that their friends and family members could play the game, too.
Fans really spent a lot of time at our booth, listened to our talks, and engaged in thoughtful conversations with us. I loved it when fans asked questions and shared their personal experiences with us. The fans were amazing. It was a super rewarding day!
photo: Rachel talking with a young mom.
I particularly enjoyed talking with two Sacramento State students who had learned about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch from a sociology professor. The guys had a long talk with us about their experiences with upstream water pollution sources in their community. I also really enjoyed talking with a younger girl who came to the booth on her own to talk with us. Her father, who is a park ranger, takes her on beach cleanups and has taught her a lot about the impacts of marine debris on wildlife. She was very cute.
This might be my favorite group of the day, though. I loved the groups of teenage girls who came to our tent together.
This fan inquired about purchasing this sweatshirt, but didn't have cash in her wallet. The festival grounds did not have an ATM so she left the festival grounds to visit a neighborhood ATM, and then came back to purchase this sweatshirt. She was awesome!
We also met a good number of fans who are from So Cal, or take family camping trips down to spend time at San Onofre State Park and surf Trestles. In addition to hearing from Trestles fans, we also connected with a good number of fans who were not only interested in the beach cleanups, but who were also excited about our chapter's annual Women's Paddle Out, which takes place at Ocean Beach on Sunday, October 4th at 10am. I'm psyched at the prospect of having new people get involved with Surfrider and the marine debris issue!
I particularly enjoyed Howie Day's performance. I first saw him open for OAR in 2005 and have been a fan ever since. And of course Colbie's set was amazing. She opened her 45 minute set with "I Won't" and closed with "Fallin' For You."
These videos were recorded at the festival. Enjoy!!!!!!!
And of course the sing-a-longs were a lot of fun!!
Thanks again to everyone who made this day possible!
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