Another impactful year for the New York City Chapter! We’ve had a great year engaging with volunteers and members through events, cleanups, lobby days, press conferences, etc. Here are some of our highlights.
We hosted 30 beach cleanups and collected 2,000 pounds of trash. Through all of our events this year, we engaged with over 1,000 volunteers
We went to Albany multiple times to advocate for the Bigger Better Bottle Bill and the Packaging Reduction Act. Through our coalition efforts, we made major progress on both bills. Both passed multiple committees and the Packaging Reduction & Recycling Act passed through the Senate but ran out of time to be passed in the Assembly. We’re looking forward to continuing to work on those bills next year and finally get them passed.
The Climate Superfund Act made major progress as well. It passed the Senate and Assembly at the end of the legislative session. We are now keeping the pressure on Governor Hochul to make sure she signs the bill before the end of the year.
Some of our programmatic highlights are:
We brought back our Blue Water Task Force Program. Our volunteers of our water testing program test water all year round at Rockaway Beach at two sites (B69th street and B92nd street) to make sure it is safe for people to swim and surf. Overall, volunteers have been able to test around 90 times.
We’ve secured two new Ocean Friendly Garden locations that we will be adding in 2025. Our Ocean Friendly Gardens aim to restore the natural functions of healthy watersheds by contouring and planting functional landscapes for rainwater retention, directing water back into the ground instead of storm drains.
We’ve continued to work on our Respect Rockaway Initiative, in collaboration with Jamaica Bay Rockaway Parks Conservancy. This initiative is a program to educate the public through posters/banners/ads on how to stay safe at the beach, respect the area, and be mindful.
We celebrated Surfrider’s 40th anniversary this year. It’s been 40 years of protecting our coasts, oceans, and beaches and fighting climate change. We hosted a 40th anniversary party at the Rockaway Hotel to also celebrate all of the chapter’s accomplishments throughout the years and look forward to what's to come in the next 40 years.
The Surfrider Foundation participated in NYC Climate Week for the first time. During Climate Week, we hosted two very successful events, with over 150 participants. Our first event was a panel discussion, in collaboration with the Patagonia Brooklyn store. The panel discussion highlighted some of Surfrider’s nature-based solutions projects, from California, Puerto Rico and New York. Our second event was a dune restoration planting at Rockaway Beach, in collaboration with RISE.
We closed out the year with a beach cleanup and holiday party! We collected over 60 pounds in just one hour and had a fun party at the Rockaway Beach Surf Club
We thank again all of our volunteers and members for the continued support throughout the years and all of this work wouldn’t be possible without you. We’ll see you all in the new year!