Young Environmental Heroes
- Jeff Barnouw | Amphitheatre Drive
On Saturday morning, October 5, Town Hall hosted Environmental Hero Awards, presented by Tasha Boerner, whose State Assembly District 77 runs from Carlsbad to Coronado. Del Mar is right in the center, and our Town Hall is a wonderful venue. Seven leaders of Environmental Agencies, non-profit and small business, from all over the District were recognized, followed by three “Rising Stars”. The organizations represented included San Diego River Park Foundation, Windward Sciences, Hammond Climate Solutions Foundation, San Diego Coastkeeper, Wildcoast (three centers in Mexico but now also an office in Del Mar near Viewpoint Brewery), Un Mar de Colores, and Cleantech San Diego.
Del Mar High Schools contributed two of the Rising Stars, and 10th-grader Janet Yang from Canyon Crest Academy opened the program playing the Star-Spangled Banner on solo clarinet. Trish Vasanadu, Rising Star senior at Canyon Crest, is co-founder of Go Greenish, a non-profit “working to bridge student empowerment and environmentalism through advocacy and youth-led policy.”
Rising Star Charlotte Sach, a senior at Torrey Pines High School who lives in Del Mar, started and runs Camp Footprint, a free environmental education summer camp for 2nd-5th graders. So far 48 kids have been through the two weeks of camp in June 2023 and 2024. (See website for information and to enroll: https://sites.google.com/view/camp-footprint-summer-camp/home).
She is the author of two environmental education books, President of the “Urth Club” at her high school, and currently an intern at the City of Del Mar with Special Projects and Programs Manager Kaitlyn Elliott-Norgrove, She completed the Blue City Network Assessment to certify Del Mar as an “Ocean Hero” Blue City, which was made official at the City Council meeting of October 21. One key focus was carbon sequestration. The Network is comprised of communities that collaborate on programs and policies that protect the marine environment. Manhattan Beach, Imperial Beach and Santa Monica began in 2020, joined the next year by Solana Beach, Malibu and others, then Carmel, Santa Cruz and Chula Vista in 2022, Encinitas 2023 and San Clemente in 2024.
Torrey Pines Urth Club is local, not part of any wider organization. It was written about in the November 2021 Sandpiper, “Teen Reporter: Teen Clean” by Jasmine Criqui. It hosts at least two community service events outside of school and two school meetings monthly. This ties in with Charlotte’s volunteering, for example, in the thrift shop of St Peters Episcopal Church in Del Mar, also the base of Camp Footprint.
She has volunteered with Free Flight Exotic Bird Sanctuary, with the Helen Woodward Animal Center (187 hours of service) and with the Al Tarkington Memorial Osprey team in its efforts to secure additional nesting sites in and around the San Dieguito Lagoon for these great birds. The third Rising Star is Daniel Vinegrad, a junior at Coronado High School, founder and president of Stop the Sewage Club, concerned with beach pollution. All awardees spoke well and passionately of their projects and engagement, including the Rising Stars. An impressive gathering.