102 Monterey County GIVES! 2024 mcgives.com Environment & Sustainability DONate online mcgives.com appreciate nature, with opportunities like one-day vacations for farmworker families as well as service activities like clearing parks of litter. “During my 10 months of AmeriCorps service, Habitat Stewardship Project has fostered my love and care for the environment while also helping me to ignite that spark in others. It has shown me how connecting the community with the local environment is crucial to protecting our planet. I have witnessed the excitement of many, knowing the tree they planted will become huge one day.” -Jeni Schmedding Keep Big Sur Wild Year Founded: 2021 Paid Staff and Volunteers: 0 paid, 22 volunteers Budget: $52,500 (562) 480-4439 keepbigsurwild.org Big Idea: The Big Sur Land Use Plan strives to juggle the region’s unspoiled beauty with public access. After 40 years, this plan is being revised, and Keep Big Sur Wild’s Big Idea is to advocate for elements in that updated plan to keep access to Big Sur open to disadvantaged communities, not just the wealthy. Donations help support the mission of preserving campsite availability for all and conserving an additional 5,000 acres of land and 20 miles of rivers. “Keep Big Sur Wild has significantly impacted Big Sur by preserving its landscape, public access, ecological health, visual beauty and historic resources. They have protected historic bridges from modernization and are committed to a Land Use Plan that ensures Big Sur’s beauty and access for underserved communities. Their efforts include educating landowners on invasive plant removal, organizing volunteer trash-removal days, protecting the soundscape, and monitoring illegal events and rentals. This ensures a wonderful experience for residents and visitors on Highway 1. Keep Big Sur Wild raises awareness about the threats of commercialization.” -Christine McGinnis Marine Mammal Center Year Founded: 1975 Paid Staff and Volunteers: 135 paid, 1,325 volunteers Budget: $953,647 (415) 754-4033 marinemammalcenter.org Big Idea: The Marine Mammal Center operates the world’s largest marine mammal hospital. You can support its work by donating to a Big Idea: renovating the nonprofit’s new Castroville facility. This facility will support the care of more than 800 marine mammals each year, work made more difficult every year as the ocean warms and ecosystems change. After 30 years operating rent-free in our county, the Marine Mammal Center will transform its newly purchased warehouse into a place to rescue, stabilize and ultimately transport sick and injured marine mammals to its marine mammal hospital in the Marin Headlands for treatment. “Volunteering at the Marine Mammal Center has been more enriching than I could have imagined. It has challenged me in the best of ways. I feel privileged to do the work I do every shift and have met some of the most wonderful people. It’s given me a deeper appreciation for Monterey Bay and the rest of California’s coast and has cemented the importance of its ecological health and conservation.” -Rachel Lancaster Big Sur Land Trust Year Founded: 1978 Paid Staff and Volunteers: 27 paid, 149 volunteers Budget: $22,205,401 (includes special grants for Carr Lake project in 2024) 625-5523 bigsurlandtrust.org Big Idea: Big Sur Land Trust is guiding a community-led initiative to create a 73-acre park in urban Salinas, transforming neglected fields into a thriving seasonal wetland and wildlife habitat. This year’s Big Idea funds the 67-acre restoration phase, helping to attract pollinators and birds to Carr Lake, a FEMA-designated floodway. Donations help fund nature-viewing platforms, a network of walking bridges and trails, and interpretive signage, developing a natural sanctuary and numerous opportunities for outdoor recreation and education in an urban setting. “I was a high schooler in 2017 when I learned about Big Sur Land Trust’s project at Carr Lake in Salinas. The area was already etched into my memory—seeing this land from my parents’ backseat window meant we were minutes away from my grandma’s house. To imagine it as a park, garden and restoration area was to imagine my little cousins running up the block to enjoy a piece of nature and history I didn’t have growing up. I could imagine my grandma having a beautiful place to walk and I could imagine taking my students there when I finally became a teacher. Seeing a healthier, greener future for my community made me more motivated to remain involved in seeing the vision come to fruition.” -Stacey Palmerin, Roosevelt Elementary School teacher spotlight “I loved learning about nature and how to make healthier choices for myself and the Earth.” -Anonymous student, 12, MEarth
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