Summer04Web




	SUMMER 2004
		> Education Center to be finished in August > OSO' s 5-year plan > Education Center Will Be an Asset > Stylin' Sales Are Up > 2nd Annual Webster Fund Event > Assemblymember Laird Event > Hollister Kids Explore Uvas-Llagas > Omega Nu Contribution > Thanks To Our Contributors > OSO Advisory Board > Make A Contribution > Microscopes Doanted to Outdoor Ed. Program In Carribean > Recap of 2003-2004
	Education Center to be finished in August

	As work on the building housing our education center comes to an end, OSO's staff looks forward to occupying the western half of the second floor, by the first week in August. Thanks to a significant investment of time and resources, the results of this challenging project will prove immensely valuable: • While the previous education center did not have disabled access, the new facility will have a state of the art elevator, and the entire building will be accessible to people with physical challenges, • The Surfrider Foundation will have their California state-certified laboratory co-located with OSO's education center, opening up great new possibilities for collaboration, • The National Weather Service will locate their state of the art Santa Cruz Weather Station in a third floor "Crow's Nest" that OSO specifically built for that purpose, offering new opportunities for OSO's kids and for the weather service, and • The new education center will provide a clean and safe area for youth to learn. Although the building renovation - a joint effort with the Santa Cruz Port District - has many complex elements that has extended the completion date, OSO will nevertheless take residency in time for this season's participants to benefit from the new facility.





	New Five Year Plan to chart OSO's growth Having successfully completed its Five Year Strategic Plan established in 1999, the Board of Directors of O'Neill Sea Odyssey has approved a new plan, which will take the organization through 2009. Among the highlights of the plan: • The development of partnerships that tie together watersheds, environmental and ocean education for sustained programs that develop leadership among low-income youth, • The use of OSO's new education center to maximize program and organizational flexibility, • Continue to work with national and international partners to involve more kids in ocean education, and • Build a permanent funding base for the organization, so that the program can serve kids into the future. For a copy of the plan, please contact Dan Haifley at dhaifley@oneillseaodyssey.org .

	NEW!! Donate Online at www.oneillseaodyssey.org





	New Education Center will be a community asset By Jack O'Neill, Chair, O'Neill Sea Odyssey As the joint O'Neill Sea Odyssey/Santa Cruz Port District building project comes to a conclusion at the end of summer, a collective sigh of relief can be heard among OSO's staff. Soon the new education center will be filled with kids, teachers, parents and OSO staff. The new facility will be a great community asset. The project has been a complicated and difficult one, as renovations always are. I want to express my appreciation to our crew, who relocated themselves to temporary quarters during the renovation. And of course, thanks are due to United States Coast Guard Lt. Deb Darminio who allowed us to use the space, Assemblymember John Laird and former Assemblymember Fred Keeley for advocating for funding, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Harry Hind, the Wildlife Conservation Board and the California Coastal Conservancy who shared with me the privilege of contributing financially to this project, and a special thanks to the building team consisting of Devcon Construction, Architect Gary Garmann, and Engineer Mark-Mesiti Miller. And of course, thanks are especially due to the Santa Cruz Port District. I'm very proud of this accomplishment. We have a 25-year lease on the second floor of the O'Neill building for O'Neill Sea Odyssey classrooms rent free. Also Sea Odyssey will be able to lease out 2,000 feet of office space on the second-floor to help fund the program. Once the building project is complete, we will be able to concentrate again on our program, and on expanding our funding base - including the development of an endowment - for OSO's future.



	Stylin' Recyclin' Sales Are Up: The Bargain You Find Can Make A Difference For The Kids, & the Environment By Dan Haifley, Executive Director The month of May, 2004 was the best ever for Stylin' Recyclin'. The store made over $9,000 in sales, showing a profit for the OSO program. The store's sales are on the rise, and with your help, Stylin' Recyclin' can make a make a difference for the kids, and for the environment. OSO's Board of Directors has established dual goals for the store: (1) to promote the environment by recycling quality goods for resale, and (2) to promote the OSO program by donating to it any profits derived from the store. Store manager Toni Pelton, Assistant Manager Lisa Jenkins, and the store's many volunteers, donors and customers have done an incredible job of building the store's basic business. They have also made Stylin' Recyclin' a great ambassador for OSO in the community. Thanks to continued support from O'Neill Surf Shop, and thanks to the commitment and loyalty of the store's customers, Stylin' Recyclin' is projected to have a good year. In order to be successful, however, the store will also need the help of O'Neill Sea Odyssey's many supporters. *Visit Stylin' Recyclin', next to the railroad tracks on 41st Avenue in Capitola, during their new Spring hours: 10 AM to 6 PM daily.*



		WAYS TO SUPPORT STYLIN' RECYCLIN' • Shop at the store for your favorites: clothing, books, jewelry, wetsuits, and sportswear. • Tell your friends! • Donate quality items for resale, and help the planet and your community. • Volunteer by calling Toni Pelton at • (831) 477-2893



	Windows To The World: 2nd Annual Adam Webster Fund Event A Success June 5 was a beautiful, balmy evening, and at the Santa Cruz Yacht Club it proved to be a great success for the Adam Webster Memorial Fund of O'Neill Sea Odyssey. Fifty guests raised over $6,000 through tickets sales, a silent auction and raffle to benefit special needs youth who participate in OSO's program. The fun evening started with a gourmet meal which was a real taste-bud-treat. Then the music started and the dancers began to rock the house. Everyone enjoyed the evening of fun and food. Reservations for next year's event are already being made, which is a testament to the fabulous evening. Tom and Judy Webster, who started the Fund in honor of their son, Adam, organized the event for the second year in a row. Music was provided by the Otis Cohen Band, the food was prepared by Ron Sabbatis, Jim and Sue Bowman/Byberg, Ki Bowman, and Dave Reisner, other volunteers included Leslie Haws, Greg & Anita Haws, Chelsea Liles, Bernadette Cabiles, Mathew Webster, Chris Romero, Andrew Strommen, Matt Rogers, and Hank and Barb Karleen Cureton. A highlight of the evening was a surprise presentation by Barbara Karleen Cureton, Yacht Club member and OSO supporter, of a $1,000 to the Adam Webster Fund. Her heartfelt remarks outlined the hard work of OSO founder Jack O'Neill, and the efforts by the Webster family to provide a meaningful experience for special needs youth. Judy Webster has outlined the vision of the Adam Webster Memorial Fund: "The vision of the Adam Webster Fund of O'Neill Sea Odyssey is to provide a successful but not purely intellectual or academic learning experience for individuals with special needs in the context of the ocean environment. There won't necessarily always be an academic curriculum, but there will always be a plan. A plan to open the doors of life and living closed by physical, social, intellectual, and emotional barriers. Special needs individuals may benefit from learning about navigation, but perhaps just as much from feeling the rolling motion of the ocean as the wave movement stimulates a body and a sensory system that has been immobile and confined to a wheelchair for years. It is never known what new experience will create a new learning opportunity, intellectual or social milestone in the special need individual's journey toward opening the next door. A door through which lies development and fulfillment in a life limited in many ways. Our friends the dolphins know it. In open water they often swim with, and ahead of these individuals almost as if they are leading them to new adventures and protecting them on their journey. We should too. That is our vision." Raffle prizes and auction items were provided by Morgan Stanley, Tom Webster, O'Neill Surf Shop, Judy Webster, Ron Kumar, Ron Sabbatis, Stylin Recyclin and O'Neill Sea Odyssey, Soquel Vineyards, and Leslie Haws. The Seaside Company donated the dinner wine, and the staff of the Santa Cruz Yacht Club worked hard on a volunteer basis. Many thanks to all the volunteers and donors who made this event a success.






	*Event to Honor Assemblymember Laird* *Scheduled for Thursday, October 14th*


	Our reception in honor of Assemblymember John Laird, originally scheduled for July 8 at the new O'Neill Sea Odyssey Education Center, will now be scheduled for October 14, 2004. While the renovated Education Center and disabled access elevator is still on schedule for completion, there have been some changes and enhancements and there is a chance that some of the tasks required to finish the project may push the final inspection to the middle of July. Given that summer schedules for some of our guests may preclude them from participating, we have re-scheduled the event in the fall.

	Sigma Alpha Chapter of Omega Nu Dives In! The Sigma Alpha Chapter of Omega Nu has donated $1,000 for the installation of an industrial wet sink in OSO's education center. This is the 2nd time Omega Nu has helped; previously they donated funds for a new microscope. Many thanks!



	Hollister Kids Explore Uvas-Llagas Watershed In southern Santa Clara County, a group of kids from Hollister, pictured below, are learning about the relationship between a discarded mattress, and zooplankton. Under a grant from the Santa Clara Valley Water District, four classes from Sunnyslope School in Hollister are participating in O'Neill Sea Odyssey's ADOPT A CREEK TO THE OCEAN. The one-year program blends the water district's ADOPT A CREEK program in the Uvas-Llagas watershed with O'Neill Sea Odyssey's ocean-based watershed education program. The Uvas-Llagas watershed has been identified by the water district as "under-adopted" in the district's effort to match citizens with particular riparian areas for restoration and maintenance. The goal of ADOPT A CREEK TO THE OCEAN is to make the connection for these kids between what happens on land, and its impact downstream. To learn about the downstream, the kids spend time on Monterey Bay, sample the ocean water and look at those samples under the microscope amplified on a television. They learn where that runoff winds up - and how it can affect plankton and the rest of the resulting ocean food chain. The creek stewardship project is taking place at Christmas Park in Gilroy. Of the 4 classes: • Two classes did their first restoration work at the end of March. They discovered a lot of bottles, cans, and trash hidden in the high weeds surrounding the creek. • The other 2 classes first went out searching for trash at the end of April. After looking through the waist-high weeds, they discovered a mattress, 2 frames, and a sleeping bag among other trash! The students enjoyed searching the creek to find the most trash. They treated it like a scavenger hunt and were very proud of their accomplishments. There were surprised at what was thrown over the embankment. Lucky for the fish in the creek, most of the trash stayed on the hill. 128 kids are participating in the program, and they will keep their commitment to the ADOPT A CREEK Program. The four groups participated in the ocean component of the Sea Odyssey program beginning April, and ending June 2.



		Microscopes Donated to Outdoor Education Programs in Caribbean O'Neill Sea Odyssey supporters Jerry Kay and John Sandidge traveled to Cuba in March to deliver 100 field microscopes to two outdoor education and community service programs for youth in Santiago de Cuba, and in Moa, Holguin Province. The two traveled legally to Cuba under a license held by Dan Haifley, who attended an international environmental conference in Santiago de Cuba in May, 2003, and met the leaders of both the education organizations. Both leaders invited Dan to return to research their methodologies, and to provide donated microscopes and copies of O'Neill Sea Odyssey's curriculum. The two organizations are: • ECOARTE, an environmental youth organization based in Moa, Holguin Province that currently has 50 youth doing environmental restoration in a municipality that has suffered great environmental damage from the Che Guevara nickel plant. • A group of 27 youth, sponsored by Universidad de Oriente biology professor Dr. Lilianna Gomez Luna, who have access to a boat and who have specialized in the study and resolution of algae bloom, caused by sedimentation, in Santiago de Cuba's bay.

	A QUICK RECAP 2003-2004 Dan Haifley, Executive Director The major milestone of the 2003-2004 school year was on March 25, 2004, when O'Neill Sea Odyssey served its 25,000th youth, Stephanie Richardson, from Sartorette School in San Jose. In addition to serving schools each year with our core, one-day program, we have begun to pilot longer term programs that integrate ocean protection into watershed and community stewardship (as an example, see front page article on Uvas-Llagas watershed). OSO and the Santa Cruz Port District are renovating the building that houses our education center which will include disabled access and expanded space for the program. We hope to have moved out of our temporary quarters on US Coast Guard property on the west side of the Harbor, known as Camp Laird, and move into in our new education center by August 1. We have finished our new Five Year Strategic Plan and are planning on launching an endowment campaign in the winter of 2004-2005. We have upgraded our website to become a functional learning center to integrate OSO into each class school curriculum. Our curriculum has been aligned with California State and National Education standards in science, math and life science. Financially, we will finish the fiscal year in a financially sound position. We will be facing cuts in revenues for the 2004-2005 year, including a 25% cut in grant funds from the City of San Jose. 2004-2005 will be the most challenging year yet financially for OSO. For the year ending June 30, 2004, we served 4,369 students, in 160 classes and community centers. Geographically, we served Santa Cruz, Monterey, Santa Clara, San Mateo and Alameda and San Benito Counties. We serve 4th through 6th grade youth, and over 50% of the schools and community centers we serve qualify for free or reduced lunches under the United States Department of Agriculture. For a copy of our year end financial report, or to view audited financial statements from previous years, please contact Cheryl Thompson at cthompson@oneillseaodyssey.org.



	THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING CONTRIBUTORS State Coastal Conservancy Wildlife Conservation Board City of Capitola Santa Clara Valley Water District City of Santa Cruz City of San Jose After School Program PG&E County of Santa Cruz Ecology Actio Sigma Alpha of Omega Nu City of San Jose Jim Thoits / Nancy Virostko Sandy & Michael Lansdale Amy & David Nelson Eleanor Wasson City of Watsonville Roz Reymers The Catherine L. & Robert O. McMahan Foundation Devcon Construction, Inc. Victor & Ruth Pasca Marc L. Grossman, D.D.S. Bank of America World Reach for Cisco Jan & Margaret Ysselstein In-Kind donations for the Webster Event: Santa Cruz Seaside Company O'Neill Surf Shop Morgan Stanley Tom & Judy Webster Ron Kumar / Ron Sabbatis Stylin Recyclin and O'Neill Sea Odyssey Soquel Vineyards Leslie Haws Staff of the Santa Cruz Yacht Club Adam Webster Fund: Karleen Appraisal Services Stephany Aguilar / Kevin Kingston Wolfgang Rosenberg Dan & Rebecca Haifley Doug & Pamela Hipsley John & Annalea Collins Rosann Watson Thomas & Frances Scully Galaham Zuanich / Ernest Rideout Henry & Marjorie Christmann Lorenzo Rodolfo Rota / Steve Smardan Peggy & John Poindexter Charlene & James Hyde Stephen Neimann / Christopher Deaver Jennifer Hyman / Tom & Judy Webster Gary Caballero & Rosemary Brogan Alan & Judy Levin / Robert & Elaine Levin Barbara Karleen / Evelyn Johnston Joe & Julie Cano / Joy Arlene Siegel Catherine & Jerry Trimm Michael & Marilyn Strand Gerald & Geraldine Sperry / Russell Rolfe, Sr. Anna Voorhies / Patricia Parmelee Maria Loera / Helen Jones / Valley Heights Tim Hawkins / Fernando & Helen Cabiles Ed & Linda Musselwhite



		OSO advisory board

	Jeff Almquist Superior Court Judge, County of Santa Cruz Blanca Alvarado Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors Albert Aramburu Marin County Board of Supervisors (ret.) Director, California Conservation Corps (ret.) Bruce Arthur Capitola City Council Cliff Barrett Scotts Valley City Council Steve Belcher Chief of Police (retired), City of Santa Cruz Jess Brown Executive Director, Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau Harry Edwards, Ph.D. Director (retired), City of Oakland Parks and Recreation Tim Fitzmaurice Mayor, City of Santa Cruz Lynda J. Goff, Ph.D. Vice Provost & Dean of Undergraduate Education Professor of Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz Sister Julie Hyer, O.P. President, Dominican Hospital Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. President, Waterkeeper Alliance Scott Kennedy Santa Cruz City Councilmember John Laird California State Assemblymember, 27th District Bob Lee Santa Cruz County District Attorney Rafael Lopez Former Member, Watsonville City Council Terry Medina Chief of Police, Watsonville Police Department Harvey J. Nickelson President/CEO, Coast Commercial Bank Ellen Pirie Santa Cruz County Supervisor Emily Reilly Santa Cruz City Council Mike Rotkin Santa Cruz City Council Simon Salinas California State Assemblymember, 28th District Joe Simitian California State Assembly, 21st District Bill Simpkins Community Volunteer, Boat Owner Robert Stephens President, California Audubon Owner, Elkhorn Native Plant Nursery Kathryn D. Sullivan, PhD President/CEO, COSI Columbus NASA Astronaut Mark Tracy Sheriff-Coroner, Santa Cruz County Mardi Wormhoudt Santa Cruz County Supervisor



	BOARD OF DIRECTORS Jack O'Neill, Chair US Rep. Sam Farr Jack McLaughlin Bridget O'Neill Carl Keehn Nick Petredis Mike McCabe Tim O'Neill Donna Blitzer Rob Bremner Shannon Brady STAFF Dan Haifley-Executive Director Laura Barnes-Education Coordinator Cheryl Thompson-Operations Coord. Tim O'Neill & Mike Egan-Skippers Toni Pelton & Lisa Jenkins- Stylin' Recylin' Store INSTRUCTORS Bruce Heyer Nikki Brooks Laura Barnes Steve Spiliotopoulos Keith Dahlin Kat Keenan Chelsea Phillips Kat Burrows