Young environmental activists from all over the world are being awarded tens
of thousands of dollars to help clean up their communities and fight the plastic pollution crisis. To date,
16 kids have been granted nearly $17,000 collectively to launch campaigns they created during the
inaugural Ocean Heroes Bootcamp to remove single-use plastic straws from their schools, communities,
and countries. Ocean Heroes Bootcamp
Chloe Mei Espinosa with actor and Lonely Whale Co-founder Adrian Grenier
The funding for these winning campaigns comes from a grant provided by Battery Powered, which was
awarded to Lonely Whale and Captain Planet Foundation through their competitive community-driven
application process, which aims to “find and fund people and projects with a serious chance of making
society stronger.”
To date, grants have been distributed among 16 youth, including local Southern California youth below:
● Newport Beach, California resident Chloe Mei Espinosa – whose mission is to change people’s
behavior and attitude toward plastic. Chloe Mei has successfully convinced three school districts to stop using plastic straws. They are Newport-Mesa Unified School District (32 schools) and Saddleback Unified School District (34 schools). The third school district, Capistrano Unified School District, one of the largest school districts in Orange County, has agreed to remove plastic straws and plastic water bottles from all 62 schools starting in the 2019-2020 school year. She has also created a website to further educate the public on the dangers of single-use plastic straws; started a lecture series at the
Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach; and presented to Hoag Memorial Hospital
Board of Directors, petitioning them to stop using single-use plastic straws in their hospitals and
centers in Southern California. Chloe Mei goes to Newport Mesa Unified School District.
● Manhattan Beach, California resident Coda Christopherson whose mission is to make her
school plastic free. Coda Christopherson eliminated plastic straws from the Manhattan beach-area, including Grand View Elementary, where she goes to school.
The inaugural Ocean Heroes Bootcamp took place in New Orleans, where nearly 200 global youth ages
8-23 collaborated with each other during the three-day program. The kids learned from experts and
peers about ways to make a measurable difference in their communities through the permanent
reduction of plastic pollution. Partner organization Ocean Wise made it possible for Ocean Heroes who
could not attend the in-person Bootcamp to participate virtually through their customized sleepover
program that took place at seven international sites, including Vancouver, Nairobi, Kenya and India,
among other locations.
On the last day of the program, Ocean Heroes pitched their ideas to actor, UN Environment Goodwill
Ambassador and Lonely Whale Co-founder Adrian Grenier; Turning Green Founder Erin Schrode; 5Gyres
Institute Co-founder Marcus Eriksen; Big Blue and You Founder Danni Washington; and Litterati
Co-Founder Jeff Kirscher, to receive feedback on their campaigns prior to implementation in their
hometowns.
“Ocean Heroes Bootcamp is unique among other youth programs,” said Dune Ives, executive director of
Lonely Whale. “Created specifically for young environmental activists, some who will graduate in the
year 2025 when the ocean is expected to contain 1 ton of plastic for every 3 tons of fish, the
Bootcamp participants are learning how to work together to solve this global crisis.”
“The level of organic activism and the desire for change that the kids possess is so different from
previous generations, including my own,” said Henry Pincus, founder of Point Break Foundation, a
founding partner of the Ocean Heroes Bootcamp. “I really do think they can and will save the planet.”
Youth leaders ages 11-18 interested in attending the 2019 Ocean Heroes Bootcamp program, which will
take place June 28-30 in Vancouver, British Columbia, can apply online. The 2019 Ocean Heroes
Bootcamp is free to attend, including room and board throughout the three-day event, for accepted
youth and their chaperones. Lonely Whale and Captain Planet Foundation are also offering a select
number of travel scholarships through funding received from Battery Powered to support youth who
have been accepted into the program.
“The Ocean Heroes grant program helps to ensure that money isn’t an obstacle to their campaigns and
empowers them to demonstrate their ability as change-makers at a young age in their communities, and
eventually, on a much larger scale,” said Lessa Carter-Jones, executive director of Captain Planet
Foundation. “We’re also matching our Ocean Heroes with adult mentors and influencers to ensure their
campaigns are ultra-successful.”
Lonely Whale has opened a second round of “For A Strawless Ocean Mini-Grants,” totaling $25,000 to
support independent campaigns to reduce plastic straws in communities across the globe. To date, six
campaigns have been awarded a total of $12,000. Grant recipients hail from four countries including
Israel, India, Japan, and the United States.
International environmental organizations making the Ocean Heroes Bootcamp possible include Lonely
Whale, Captain Planet Foundation, UN Environment, The 5Gyres Institute, The Ocean Project, Plastic
Paradise, Mommy Greenest, Turning Green, Ocean Wise, Litterati, Algalita, Point Break Foundation, Love
Letters to the Sea, Big Blue and You, and more.
For more information on Ocean Heroes Bootcamp, visit www.oceanheroes .blue. You can also connect
with Ocean Heroes HQ on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
About Battery Powered
Battery Powered is a member-funded program and innovative philanthropic giving model of The Battery, a private social club
based in San Francisco. The program is designed to help members explore themes, share ideas and activate their generosity to
spark lasting change.
About Captain Planet Foundation
Based on the animated series Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Captain Planet Foundation (CPF) was co-founded in 1991 by
media mogul Ted Turner. Since then, CPF has played a critical role empowering the next generation of business leaders and
policymakers to be environmentally literate citizens who leverage technology and information to protect the air, land, and
water upon which all life depends.
As a grant-making foundation, CPF has funded over 1.6 million children to directly participate in environmental restoration
projects with schools and non-profits in all 50 U.S. states and in 25 countries internationally. In addition to its Small Grants
Program for educators, the Captain Planet Foundation also operates Project Learning Garden (providing schools with onsite
learning laboratories and healthy food access), Project Hero (web-based and project-based learning platform for students to
save locally endangered & threatened species), and the Institute (science education initiatives that promote the intersections
between technology, innovation, the environment and personal action). For more information: www.captainplanetfoundation.org .
About Lonely Whale
Lonely Whale is an award-winning incubator for courageous ideas that drive impactful market-based change on behalf of our
ocean. Founded in December 2015 by Adrian Grenier and Lucy Sumner, Lonely Whale is inspired by the power of community to
create the change needed to ensure a healthy planet. Lonely Whale is working towards a new era of radical collaboration,
together facilitating the creation of innovative ideas that push the boundary on current trends in technology, media, and
advocacy that positively impact the health of our ocean. The organization spearheaded the global Strawless Ocean movement,
which permanently removes single-use plastic straws from establishments and markets, and NextWave Plastics, the first global
network of ocean-bound plastics supply chains. Lonely Whale’s work has been recognized by Fast Company’s World Changing
Ideas, the Shorty Awards, the ADDY Awards, the SEAL Awards, the P4G 2018 Circular Economy Award sponsored by the Danish
Government, and more. Lonely Whale is a proud supporter of the UN Environment’s #CleanSeas campaign. To learn more and
support, visit www.lonelywhale.org or follow @LonelyWhale.
About Point Break Foundation
Point Break Foundation is a private foundation dedicated to plastic waste reduction, ocean conservancy, and general
environmental health. In addition to grant giving, Point Break conceptualizes, oversees, and provides start-up funding to
philanthropic initiatives dedicated to these goals. As a founding partner of the Ocean Heroes Bootcamp, Point Break
Foundation is focused on empowering young activists to campaign around the issue of plastic pollution and ocean debris. For
more information visit: www.pointbreakfoundation.org or follow @pointbreakfoundation on Instagram
Photo Credits: Ocean Heroes Bootcamp / Battery Powered
