The BeachScape Program is a National Surfrider initiative designed to document current beach sizes, shoreline structures, beach accesses, outfalls, erosion hot spots and other points of interests on beaches. This program also documents the history of our beach and tracks changes to the landscape. Ideal for a school club or class project. Volunteers Needed: Field data collectors and surveyors; no experience is necessary. Help document your section of the Grand Strand (ie: North Myrtle Beach). We also have a positon for a GIS volunteer who has experience in Arcview software. Coordinator: Beth Gunter To volunteer, please call Beth at (843) 234-0463.

The Storm Drain Stenciling Program is a National Surfrider Program designed to inform and educate the public about the repercussions of dumping litter, cigarettes, waste oil/petroleum products, fertilizers etc. (anything but storm water) into the storm drain system. We will use stencils or plaques on top of these storms drain/gutters to inform the public of the storm drain system– “NO DUMPING – Leads to Ocean.”

Volunteers Needed: The program coordinator will be responsible for working with the local city governments on developing this program, designing stencils/plaques to be placed at storm drains, recruiting and coordinating volunteers to attach stencils/plaques to storm drains and map locations of storm drains/plaques. We need YOU for the project! Send us an e-mail if you’re interested: mail [at] surfridergrandstrand [dot] org.

“Sometimes you just have to remind them.” That was the premise behind the Grand Strand Chapter’s Beach Signs project which took place on a Friday afternoon in April, 2000. Volunteers from the 3rd grade class at Myrtle Beach Christian Academy helped the Surfrider Foundation place over 200 anti-litter signs on dune fences in the hotel district of Myrtle Beach. With approval from the Myrtle Beach Beach Safety Committee, the 9 and 10 year olds attached the light-weight aluminum signs from 30th Ave. North to 10th Ave. South. The project was covered by local news stations WPDE-TV 15 and WBTW-TV 13. Many thanks go out for our young volunteers. The program will be expanded to North Myrtle Beach, Surfside Beach, Garden City, and Little River. If you’re interested, drop us a quick e-mail and we’ll fill you in on how you can help out.

Denny Green recently completed two public service announcement commercials for the Grand Strand Chapter. The first commercial shows how the everyday “necessities” we bring to the beach such as chairs, toys, and straws can end up as litter when left behind. The second focuses on run-off from parking lots and how trash left behind in parking lots washes through the storm water drainage system and ultimately ends up on the beaches and in the ocean. Both carry the same message…take your trash with you to keep our beaches clean! You can catch the commercials this summer and fall on local stations Beach TV, WPDE, WFXB, WBTW, and on Time Warner Cable.

“Respect the Beach” is a series of learning modules offered free by the Surfrider Foundation. The Grand Strand Chapter recently placed modules in the Waccamaw Hub for Math and Science, an education resource center for Horry and Georgetown county teachers grades K-12. The Hub is located at the Atlantic Center for Marine and Wetland Studies at Coastal Carolina University. If you’d like to receive copies, the modules are available online from the Surfrider Foundation.