Friday, March 26, 2010

"Ignite the Night" at the W

By Amy Ricard, Communications Associate

If you live on Earth, you may have heard about Earth Hour, a special event tomorrow evening whereby everyone worldwide will turn off the lights to raise awareness about climate change. In the words of the organizers:

On Earth Hour hundreds of millions of people around the world will come together to call for action on climate change by doing something quite simple—turning off their lights for one hour. The movement symbolizes that by working together, each of us can make a positive impact in this fight, protecting our future and that of future generations.

So who says standing up to climate change can't be fun? Save The Bay invites you to switch off your lights and head to the W Hotel in San Francisco to celebrate Earth Hour with a cocktail in your hand. From 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. the W Hotel will power down while you drink up, and will donate a portion of their proceeds to Save The Bay.

This is truly a win-win situation. You can delight in some delectable eats and libations while essentially participating in an environmental double-dip – protecting the Earth and the Bay!

Check out the details below. And we hope to see you there!


Friday, March 19, 2010

Mid-Pen Chapter of Charity League teams up with Save The Bay

This post was submitted by Lindsay Farino of Menlo Park, CA, a member of the Mid-Peninsula Chapter of NCL, along with her daughter Julia Farino, a freshman at Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, CA.

On Saturday, November 14, a large group of volunteers from The Mid-Peninsula Chapter of the National Charity League (NCL) worked together with the Save the Bay organization to learn about wetlands and plant close to 200 native plants in the Palo Alto Baylands. Mothers and daughters worked alongside one other to help restore the wetlands with blue-eyed grass and marsh-coyote brush saplings. Save the Bay staff member Jill Jacobson explained that the NCL volunteers’ planting in the wetland transition zones, "creates shelter and habitat for animals when water is high in the wetlands."

Save the Bay staffer Megan Kelso said, "Having local volunteer groups like the National Charity League come out to the wetlands creates a sense of stewardship for the participants." She emphasized to the group of mothers and daughters that Save the Bay was founded by women. It is important to remember the three East Bay women, Kay Kerr, Sylvia McLaughlin and Esther Gulick, who founded the Save the San Francisco Bay Association in 1961, to stop the destruction of the bay that they loved so much. Their first volunteer effort mobilized thousands of members to stop the City of Berkeley's plan to double in size by filling in the shallow Bay off-shore.



The NCL teenagers responded enthusiastically to the educational activities that took place prior to planting the wetlands. Emma Peyton, an 8th Grade NCL member from Redwood City said, “I like doing this because I am doing some good for the community.” Menlo Park 8th-grader Nora Lewis added, “Doing NCL (itself) gets me closer to my Mom. It gets us to bond together.” The National Charity League (NCL) teaches young women to be confident that they can make a difference in their own communities both as young women and throughout their adult lives.

The Mid-Peninsula Chapter of the National Charity League is made up of mothers and teenage daughters from Menlo Park, Atherton, Redwood City, Woodside, Portola Valley, Belmont and San Carlos. The purpose of NCL is to initiate and promote charitable endeavors in which mothers and daughters work together. Other philanthropies currently supported by the NCL Mid-Peninsula Chapter include the Friends of the Menlo Park Library, My New Red Shoes, Shelter Network’s Haven House and Redwood Family House, American Cancer Society (including the Menlo Park Discovery Shop), Family & Children Services, Art in Action and Rebuilding Together Peninsula. For more information, visit www.nclmidpen.org.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Bay Area leaders step up to save salt ponds

By Amy Ricard, Communications and Policy Associate

Regional opposition to Cargill’s plan to build a new city of up to 30,000 people on 1,436 acres of restorable salt ponds continues to grow dramatically.

Last week more than 90 elected officials from all nine Bay Area counties submitted a letter to the City Council of Redwood City urging them to reject a massive development on Bay salt ponds proposed by Cargill Inc., declaring, "The era of filling San Francisco Bay is over."

You can read about this significant swell of support from Bay Area leaders in the SF Chronicle and the SJ Mercury News.

Dozens of mayors and city council members, county supervisors, and state legislators strongly oppose the project, agreeing that "salt ponds are not land to be paved – they are part of San Francisco Bay to be restored to tidal marsh for wildlife habitat, natural flood protection for our communities, cleaner water, and recreation areas for everyone to enjoy."

In addition to this latest batch of elected officials to come out against the proposed development, the Menlo Park City Council voted to formally oppose the project citing the urgent need to protect and restore San Francisco Bay.

And Peter Drekmeier, former mayor of Palo Alto has said, "It is not 1960, and the Bay is not the place for housing. This is not smart growth like Redwood City's award-winning downtown projects. That's why the City Council should just say 'no' to Cargill now."

The bottom line: we all have a stake in what happens to our Bay. We must come together as a region to stop Cargill from paving over and destroying our great natural resource. If you have not yet signed our petition opposing this project yourself, please sign it today. You can also urge your own state legislators to sign the opposition letter by clicking here.