Program areas at Algalita Marine Research and Education
EDUCATIONOn the education front, we began the year with an ambitious revisioning of our Wayfinder Program. Originally, this online platform was designed specifically for young people who wanted to take their environmental activism to the next level. Within a year, hundreds of students from over two dozen countries joined the program. Energized by the programs success, we worked to design a brand-new Wayfinder educator platform that empowers teachers to deploy the program in their classrooms. Supplemented with teaching kits, virtual training sessions, mini-grant awards, and opportunities to connect with other educators, this new program component will provide teacher support like never before. And best of all, these services will be offered free of charge thanks to supporters like you. This year, Algalitas programs reached over 13,000 students, 127 teachers, and 2,165 community members across the globe.
PREVENTIONOn a local level, our zero-waste refill shop in partnership with Bring Your Own Long Beach has been fully renovated with new fixtures and educational displays. BYO is on track to reach 80,000 product refills this year! Algalitas beach cleanups went back into action, and we were excited to host our first large community event since the pandemic. In addition, Algalita was proud to participate in the Long Beach Green Schools Campaign that garnered LBUSD Board support this year!
RESEARCH Another ambitious endeavor of 2022 was taking the first step towards developing a brand-new Plastic Pollution Research and Education Center in Long Beach, CA. In partnership with our sister organization, Moore Institute for Plastic Pollution Research, we began to secure a beautiful location right next door to our refill shop. During 2023, our team will build a state-of-the-art microplastics lab, a teacher training center and classroom, a technology lab, and workspaces to support visiting scientists. Also in 2022, we continued to analyze the final gyre samples collected during Algalita's long-term monitoring efforts in the North Pacific.