The Los Angeles Lakers teamed up with their official airline partner, Delta Air Lines and Heal the Bay to clean up Dockweiler State Beach. Andrew Bynum, Andrew Goudelock and the Laker Girls each captained a team of 20 people in a trash pick-up competition. One hundred and eighty eight pounds of trash was collected overall, and Team Gold, led by Andrew Goudelock, was the winning team, collecting seventy eight pounds of trash.
Heal the Bay is a nonprofit environmental organization which aims to make Southern California coastal waters and watersheds, including Santa Monica Bay, safe, healthy and clean. Among their many endeavors are corporate beach cleanups which allow employees to get outside, have fun, and learn about issues facing our environment. Before the competition began the Heal the Bay staffers spoke to Lakers and Delta employees about the importance of clean, healthy and safe beaches. They explained how, through the cities’ storm drains, trash ends up on our beaches. When it rains in Los Angeles, the water quality at the beaches is it at its worst because all of the debris in the drains gets dumped in to the ocean.
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“The Los Angeles Lakers appreciate Delta for partnering with us on this beach cleanup to spread awareness about the importance of being eco-conscience. It is eye opening that a piece of trash dropped near STAPLES Center can end up on one of our local beaches,” said Alison Tolladay, Coordinator of the Community Relations Department for the Los Angeles Lakers.
For the beach cleanup competition, the three teams (Gold, Purple and White) were given a specific area of the beach to clean. Heal the Bay outfitted everyone with buckets, gloves, trash pickers and sifters. They even made a special trash spear for Andrew Bynum’s 7 foot frame. The teams were then sent to their designated areas to pick up as much trash as they could in the one hour time frame. The teams found a variety of discarded materials on the beach: Styrofoam cups, plastic bags, glass bottles and even a tire.
Collecting one hundred and eighty eight pounds of trash was a great accomplishment for all of the teams, but the environmental lessons learned will stay with everyone for years to come. Thank you to Delta Air Lines and Heal the Bay for a great afternoon!