What You Can Do Series Celebrates Our Oceans in June and July

What You Can Do Series Celebrates Our Oceans in June and July

June 3, 2013 – New York, NY – The What You Can Do series dives into ocean conservation this June and July, revealing easy ways to help preserve the beauty of our coasts for future generations. The series will feature inspiring work of activists from the Monterey Bay to the Florida shore, focusing on critical ocean concerns such as pollution, wildlife health and sustainable seafood. Check out the video launch of the Oceans campaign here: http://youtu.be/Z0SOQdnlD8U.

“Our team traveled to both coasts to discover the latest issues affecting our oceans and simple ideas to take positive action,” shared Jessica Arinella, What You Can Do creator and producer. “From buying sustainable seafood to packing a beach picnic with reusable items, we can make a big impact with small changes.”

To spotlight one of the biggest threats to oceans, What You Can Do announces the competition “Plastic Art for a Healthy Ocean”. The contest invites artists to submit a 2D or 3D ocean-inspired piece using primarily plastics and other mixed media. At an event on July 20^th at the Bushwick Coffee House in Brooklyn, NY, the What You Can Do team will announce the winner of a $100 cash prize and matching donation to an ocean conservation charity. Event details will be announced on the What You Can Do Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/whatyoucando. For contest details, visit:https://www.theartlist.com/art-calls/plastic-art-for-a-healthy-ocean.

What You Can Do will screen at The Manhattan Film Festival on June 22 at 1pm, for more information, visit:http://www.manhattanfilmfestival.org. The Webby Awards named What You Can Do as an official honoree in the Public Service and Activism category for 2013. The series also received the 2012 Humanitarian Award from the Accolade Competition in recognition of the mission to help change the world, one minute at a time. Houston World Fest, the oldest independent film and video festival in the world, presented What You Can Do with a Gold Remi Award for Television Commercials/Public Service Announcements in 2013.

Produced by On the Leesh Productions in New York City, the What You Can Do web and television series spotlights easy and powerful ways to help solve important issues such as rainforest preservation, climate change, hunger and animal cruelty. The series has been featured in Better Homes & Gardens, The Daily Green web site, Mrs. Green’s World radio show andVideography Magazine. To view What You Can Do episodes and for more information, visit:http://www.whatyoucando.com.

On the Leesh Productions is a New York City based company that creates film, web series and corporate video. For more information about On the Leesh, visit: http://www.ontheleesh.com/.

Media Contact:                                                                Sponsorship Contact:

Ashley Kaufman                                                               Kristin Thomas

ashley@eluxpr.com                                                       KristinReniseThomas@gmail.com

336.255.7565                                                                      704.369.1492

Halloween Tips and Treats: Part 1 Halloween Party

Trying to figure out a way to make your Halloween greener?

In this episode of The Unstoppable Minute, Jessica, Alicia, Amanda and Cassandra discuss ways to make your costumes and party decorations fun and better for the environment.

Check out our full show on YouTube.

And be sure to check out What You Can Do on Facebook.
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For more information about What You Can Do, please visit our website.

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If life's a beach, let's keep it clean!

Growing up in California’s Bay Area, I have always had great love, awe, and appreciation for the ocean. Thinking about it now, the seed of my fascination with the ocean may have been planted when I saw my first movie in theaters, The Little Mermaid. After seeing it, and of course watching it over and over again at home, I always regarded the ocean’s undulating surface as an expansive blue curtain shielding another world filled with creatures beyond our wildest imagination.

While I am not a believer in mermaids, yes it’s unfortunate; I still regard the ocean with the same astonishment that I did when I was a child. I spent about 8 years of my young life dreaming of being an oceanographer. Why didn’t I fulfill my dream you ask? It all came to an end on career day when I listened to a real life oceanographer speak for the first time. I fell asleep to him talking about plankton, and mind you I rarely fell asleep in class, and I awoke to him still talking about plankton. He then ended his speech saying “Remember kids, don’t do it for the money”. I left the classroom knowing that was, in fact, not the career path for me. However, I still love the ocean, and know that we must do something NOW to help reverse the damage we have caused to the health of our oceans and all of it’s inhabitants.

Hearing about floating plastic land masses the size of Texas in the middle of the ocean, seeing pictures of birds covered in oil from recent oil spills, and watching the documentary The Cove, is enough to break my heart and make me sick thinking about how humans have trashed, disrespected, and taken advantage of our ocean. Our health is directly linked to its health, which is why I strongly believe we need to do something, together as a human race, and also as individuals on a daily basis.

I was going to pack this blog post with scientific facts about the ocean’s current state, but really do I need to? We all know the ice caps are melting, the ocean is littered with plastic, and its inhabitants are dying because of man made plastic materials and fishing equipment. The ocean also recently received a 60 out of a possible 100 as it’s current overall health score. I know for a fact that if I went home to my Mom with a 60 as my grade on a test, she would be very disappointed. That’s not a score that makes it onto the refrigerator.

While I can sit around all day worried about the state of ocean, I’m going to put my money where my mouth is. I will be participating, and filming beach clean ups over the next two weekends here in NYC, and dedicating my blog posts to reporting back all that I discover.

There are so many simple things we can do to make a difference. For example, and this is one I’ve really been trying to work on myself, let’s ban the plastic bags! Let’s also stop buying water bottles, or at least limit the amount we do buy, replacing them with reusable containers. Lastly, at the very least, let’s make sure to pick up our trash!

Here are a couple links to websites with detailed info about our ocean’s current condition.

Ocean Facts

Ocean Health Index

I look forward to participating in my first beach clean-up, and encourage all of you out there, be it near the coast or not, to pick up trash. Maybe even just one piece of trash everyday, even if it’s not yours. Think about what a difference that would make if we all actually did it!

I’ll be reporting back next week, so stay tuned!