Students from Ocean Studies Charter School and the local community at large participated in the third annual Marine Debris Derby on Jan. 28.
Student and family volunteers sponsored by local organizations collected trash on the shoreline, from kayaks and from boats in order to compete for prizes in several categories and raise money for Ocean Studies’ marine science program. They met at the Caribbean Club in Key Largo to count their trash and celebrate their community service.
In total, 108 young volunteers from Ocean Studies and other local schools collected over 13,000 pounds of plastic waste and debris. In doing so they raised thousands of dollars for Ocean Studies’ marine education program.
The celebration at the Caribbean Club included competitions for different divisions and categories. In the Shoreline Division, Savannah Williams and Aubrey Williams collected the most trash, each bringing in 393 pounds of waste. The winners of the kayak division were Alex Rudolph, Hans Neill and Walker Absten, bringing in 50 pounds of waste collected from kayaks. For the team division, the “Dolphin Team” won, contributing 477 pounds. Their prizes included sailing trips, Everglades tours and fishing trips. Also included in the festival was live music from local musician Micah Gardner, a trivia competition, and catering from A Moveable Feast.
The event started in 2021, and was inspired by the monthly cleanups Ariel Poholek and his son and former Ocean Studies student Pascal Weisberger hosted at the K-8 school. With the idea of getting the school community more involved with cleanup efforts, Poholek “looked into how you could do a cleanup as a fundraiser.” Ocean Studies eventually decided on making an annual cleanup event that functioned as a fundraiser for their school’s science program through sponsorships of individual teams and participants, in which the school was rewarded by how much trash it picked up.
Ocean Studies, as a K-8 school with a specific focus on marine science, finds importance in educating its students about the dangers of environmental pollution.
“Our mission is to teach kids about the environment of the Keys and what’s happening in our local environment with plastics and the changes we need to make,” said Trisha Woods, the principal at Ocean Studies. “It’s good to show kids how much trash is out there and the changes we can make when we clean up.”
