The Surfrider Club is a student-led environmental club which meets every Monday at lunch in room 439 to plan and carry out beach cleanups and microplastic research in partnership with the Surfrider Foundation.

   “Meetings are simple. We usually just plan our next cleanup date. Sometimes, we plan a cleanup to count microplastics in the sand at different beaches. These are great for helping the Surfrider Foundation gather data on plastic pollution,” said Club Member Senior Justin Byrd.

   “I would highly recommend the club for others. Not only do you help protect the environment, but you also build relationships with other like-minded people and have lots of fun in the process,” said Byrd.

   Club Vice President Junior Mikaela Ellen said, “I hope that Surfrider will expand, due to the dedicated senior volunteers that we have who are graduating. Additionally, we’re aiming to participate in more diverse events put on by other organizations, meaning that the club will not solely be microplastic and beach cleanups in the future.”

“We’re actually part of a [larger] organization called The Surfrider Foundation, and we are a smaller branch of it here at [UC High],” said Ellen.

  Club Advisor and Physics Teacher Scott Patterson said, “When we have a microplastics event, we bring the samples back and catalog all of them and sort them by class during the meetings. The groups divide up and organize, categorize, and sort all the microplastic samples and then tally everything up and send the data in to the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency].”

   Ellen added, “My cross-country team captain, Olivia, encouraged all of the students on cross-country to join. I also have a passion for the environment, conservation and the beach, so it just fit well with what I care about.”

   Byrd said, “I wanted to join the Surfrider Club because I care deeply for the environment, and I want to help in any way I can.”

   Patterson explained, “We meet in Room 439 at lunch on Mondays pretty much every week, and always send out updates on Remind. So if anybody is interested, come by and get involved. There’s a lot of cool environmental activism taking place,” said Patterson.