Chesapeake Bay Safety & Conservation

The Magic of Creation.

It’s All Around Us. And We’re Failing to Protect It.

Whether you call it תיקון עולם or בל תשחית or even פקוח נפש - it’s time to do something about it.

It was the garbage.

When we bought our house, I saw that the Eastern Shore was beautiful. But every time we would drive there, I would see a lot of garbage on the side of the road.

When we went to Matapeake Beach, I saw a LOT of garbage. And I thought this should be my project:

I could get people involved, and make a big difference.

Here’s what I decided.

I thought of 3 projects to do: One that affects individual sites, one that affects my new community, and one that affects a broader community.

For the first project, I chose to make trips to different places: beaches on the Eastern Shore, roadsides that had trash all over them, and parks. I would pick up the trash, and whenever I could, I would bring friends to help me so that we could accomplish more than I could on my own.

Second, I decided to take on the task of testing the water at Matapeake Beach to see if it’s safe for swimming. The person who used to test the water is the person who sold the house to us, and he moved. No one has picked up the job since he left. I decided that I can do it. I have to buy tests and bring  water samples to ShoreRivers to test the water weekly between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and then find a way to tell the community whether it’s safe to swim that week. The samples would cost around $500 to buy, and I created a website to let people know if it's safe to swim each week: https://swimmatapeake.com/

Finally, if I meet my goal of raising money for the tests and website, I would like to raise money for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. CBF fights for effective, science-based solutions to the pollution in the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers and streams. Their motto, "Save the Bay," is a rallying cry for pollution reduction throughout the Chesapeake's six-state, 64,000-square-mile watershed, which is home to more than 18 million people and 3,000 species of plants and animals.

In the four centuries since the explorations of Captain John Smith, the Chesapeake Bay has lost half of its forested shoreline, more than half its wetlands, nearly 80 percent of its underwater grasses, and more than 98 percent of its oysters. Development has continued across Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia at a rate between 30,000 to 40,000 acres per year. [Data from CBF website]

I chose my project because I want to be a part of the solution. Join me! I am setting up a site to donate to my water-testing and publicizing effort. Once I’ve funded that, I will set up a CBF fundraiser. I am also asking all my guests to invest at least an hour - hopefully more! - in cleaning up an area near your own communities. When you’ve done your cleanup, please fill out this form, https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1i9S6gieIqFWWbhfqVv70AUPHRwbFr2j9yOXBYnC1P6k/edit?ts=6099d270,

so I can keep track of the impact we’ve had!