Save My Oceans Tour w/Cold War Kids - UC Berkeley Campus - 4/17/2010

by Nicole Parisi-Smith, San Francisco Chapter

On Saturday the San Francisco Chapter set up an outreach booth at the Save My Oceans Tour stop on the University of California at Berkeley campus.

The event coincided with "Cal Day", which is essentially an annual open house for prospective students and their families. So campus was hopping during the Save My Oceans event, especially since it took place on the lawn outside of Cal's main library, in Memorial Glade.



The event kicked off with a warm welcome given by Ian Campbell of The Marketing Division, who coordinated the logistics for our participation in the tour stop.


photo: Neel, Nicole, Keely, Ian, Emily, Lani

Ian was joined on stage by Jessica, the Cal student who helped coordinate the event, and "the plastic bag monster." Thanks, Ian for giving Surfrider a shout out, and for encouraging event attendees to stop by our booth!

We were set up towards the back of the event, in a "Village Green" area, alongside 2 water-themed non-profits, 2 Cal media organizations, and the Save My Oceans Tour booth.


photo: by Ken Chan

Ian, Jessica and the Plastic Bag Monster were followed by a great performance by the Cold War Kids. I'd heard of them numerous times, but this was my first time seeing them live - great show! I also really appreciated that they were there supporting the Save My Oceans Tour.


photo: by Ken Chan. Cold War Kids on stage.

The awesome Surfrider San Francisco Chapter volunteers present at the event with me were Neel and Keely, as well as Cal Surf Club Officers Lani and Emily. Lani and Emily came directly from the campus clubs forum, where they had been tabling all day long, talking with prospective students and family members about the Cal Surf Club. They were awesome! We were also joined by Neel's friend, Lani who helped us out by taking great group photos of the Surfrider crew in our booth:)


photo: Emily, Lani, the Plastic Bag Monster (a very good humored Cal student), Keely, Neel, Nicole

We got to talk with some very young prospective Cal students, an alum, an incoming freshman and his dad, fellow environmental activists who wanted to know more about Surfrider, and a graduating Cal senior who will be attending grad school at Scripps in the fall, and wanted more info about the San Diego Chapter. Thanks to an awesome Surfrider membership promotion that Ian put together for us, we were able to enroll several new Surfrider members at the event.


photo: Keely and Neel

Also thanks to Ken Chan of Studio Dream, who was taking photos for the event organizers, and was kind enough to send the photos to me, for use on this blog. Thanks to Laura and Kyle from Surfrider HQ who helped us get involved with the Save My Oceans Tour!

We are looking forward to doing outreach at the Cal screening of the new Disney film OCEANS this Wednesday night, in Wheeler Auditorium.

And this 2009 Surfrider Wavemaker Award goes to ...

Congratulations to DC Surfrider Chapter Chair Julie Lawson, amazing supporter of the Music Outreach Program, who is the recipient of the 2009 Surfrider Foundation Wavemaker Award for Chapter Leadership.

The Surfrider Foundation's Board of Directors gave out several 2009 Wavemaker Awards in different categories. Here's a photo of all of the 2009 Wavemaker Award Recipients. It was taken by Marketing Assistant Kyle Lishok at the February 2010 Awards Dinner in San Clemente, CA.


photo: Back Row (L-R): Jerry Collamer, Brock Wilson, Randy Renick, Julie Lawson, Rick Saveri, Kerry O'Bryan, Manase Mansur, Julie Steinleitner. Front Row (L-R): Belinda Smith, Kirk Holmes (AVEDA), Robb Havassy.

Read about all of the 2009 Wavemaker Award Recipients here in this Surfrider HQ press release. Here's an excerpt:

Chapter Leadership Award
Julie Lawson – Washington, DC Chapter

Julie’s efforts have made the Chapter a viable, credible and well-organized group. Her work has included a leadership role in the passage of the Washington, DC Bag Tax Bill, and assistance on other bag bans and bills. Additionally, Julie has worked tirelessly to recruit and train new activists, served as a mentor to other chapters and participated in numerous EarthShare presentations, leading to a 35% increase in pledges for the Foundation.


photo: Julie giving her award acceptance speech at the 2009 Wavemaker Award Dinner.

As an example of Julie's work, check this out - on April 1, 2009 the DC City Council held a hearing on Bill 18-150 "The Anacostia River Cleanup and Protection Act of 2009." Julie was invited to testify at the hearing, on behalf of Surfrider DC. This is her testimony -



Julie also testified at the January 20, 2010 DC City Council Committee on Government Operations & the Environment's hearing on Bill 18-521 "The Human and Environmental Health Protection Amendment Act of 2009."

Watch her testimony here. She is introduced about 23 minutes into the start of the hearing.


Another 2009 Wavemaker Award Recipient, also a friend of MOP, is Belinda Smith from the Surfrider San Diego Chapter. Belinda received the Distinguished Service Award, in part for her leadership on the development of a brand new Surfrider film “The Cycle of Insanity: The Real Story of Water." This film coincides with Surfrider's "Know Your H2O" campaign.


photo: Belinda

Here's the film's trailer -

The Cycle of Insanity: The Real Story of Water - TRAILER 1 from Surfrider Foundation San Diego C on Vimeo.

“The Cycle of Insanity: The Real Story of Water" will premiere on March 21st, World Water Day, in San Diego.



Congrats again to the 2009 Wavemaker Award Recipients!

Thanks to Kyle, Laura, Vickie, Belinda, and Ed, who all helped me gather the photos for this post.