VERO BEACH — Alexis Peralta of Coastal Connections recently presented beautiful, reusable water bottles to all one hundred sailors in Youth Sailing Foundation’s sailing programs. As part of YSF’s environmental education program, disposable plastic water bottles are no longer permitted on campus or in boats.
The new, colorful bottles feature the Coastal Connections turtle logo, and they have a special carabiner for attaching to the sailor’s life jacket or boat. YSF has installed purified water dispensers in the classroom and at the waterfront.
“Coastal Connections was founded in August 2017 by a group of Indian River County women who wanted to highlight our amazing coastal environments and inspire others to love and protect it,” explains Peralta.
Their mission is to protect our coastal habitats through education connecting people to their environment. One focus, reducing single-use plastics, dove-tailed nicely with YSF’s environmental initiative.
YSF incorporates environmental education into all its sailing programs. Ms. Peralta, in her role as Indian River County Stormwater Educator & Fertilizer Enforcement Officer, has given a series of lectures to YSF sailors on preserving and improving the water quality of the Indian River Lagoon.
Switching hats to Coastal Connections for the bottle presentations gave her another opportunity to remind all the young sailors that they are stewards of the water on which they sail every week.
Over the past season YSF also welcomed experts from the Environmental Learning Center who taught the young sailors about local water quality challenges.
In addition to classroom education, YSF incorporates frequent island clean ups into their youth programs, providing hands-on opportunities for kids to make a difference in their local environment while learning to sail.
