Surfrider Foundation

GETTING INVOLVED runs periodically in the Daily Pilot on a rotating basis. For information on adding your organization to this list, call (949) 574-4298. SMALL BUSINESS ASSISTANCE CENTER The Small Business Assistance Center of Orange Coast College needs volunteers to advise small business owners in finance, accounting, law, marketing, sales, human resources and other areas. (714) 432-5916. SOMEONE CARES SOUP KITCHEN Someone Cares Soup Kitchen needs food servers and volunteers for kitchen duties.

June Casagrande The Surfrider Foundation has found a way to turn vice into virtue. People who come to Margaritaville on Saturday for the concoctions will get to take part in a second guilty pleasure: "Casino Night." It's more innocent than it seems. The players of the Vegas-style games will compete for donated prizes instead of cash. At the same time, they will be helping one of Newport-Mesa's favorite causes. "It's all to help benefit water quality in the area," said Ray Halowski , a Surfrider Foundation spokesman, who concocted the event with Margaritaville general manager Steve Pickford.

Alicia Robinson Local coastal protection activists are trying to rekindle interest in a 1999 state marine life protection law that never fully developed. This time around, however, they want to defuse the opposition that helped stall earlier efforts. The Surfrider Foundation recently began canvassing local organizations, including the city of Newport Beach, to gather support for the Marine Life Protection Act, which was passed by the state Legislature in 1999 but state wildlife officials never completed their mandated task.

June Casagrande It's just a drop in the bucket, and a little one at that, but every drop counts. The Newport Beach chapter of the Surfrider Foundation has lucked its way into an opportunity to help spread the word about water quality. Surfrider enthusiasts who happen to work at the site -- Mike Boudreaux, partner in Morse-Boudreaux architects, Bill Thomas and Bob Scott -- donated space on a small billboard next to their office building at 1931 Newport Blvd.

When Newport Beach residents think of the Surfrider Foundation, they think of Nancy Gardner. The longtime local environmentalist's name is practically synonymous with Surfrider and a host of water-quality causes near and dear to the city's heart. When Surfrider held its "50 in Five" rally on Coast Highway at the mouth of the Santa Ana River on Sunday, Gardner was there. When City Council members convened to hear a heart-felt pitch for an Orange Coast River Park, Gardner was there, too. When local high school students are conducting their own water-quality tests, her mark is visible there, too. It's all for the cause of assuring water quality, she said.

June Casagrande This may be the most water-quality-conscious city around, but that's even more reason to keep working for awareness, Surfrider Foundation members say. "There are lots of things competing for our attention," said Nancy Gardner, representative of the local Surfrider Foundation chapter. "It's important to keep water quality a priority in peoples' minds." About 40 Surfrider members and volunteers lined both sides of Coast Highway near the Santa Ana River on Sunday to continue the group's push for reducing pollutants.

Richard Dunn The days of Scott Morlan driving a dozen or so kids around in an old, beat-up van in search of the best surfing breaks reflect a more innocent time in our society. Back then, in the early 1970s, each kid had a square piece of carpet on which to sit as they swayed back and forth on the van's floor at every stop. "We begged and borrowed to get surfboards, then begged and borrowed to get a van," said Morlan, who began as a swim teacher at the YMCA in Newport Beach in 1971, then convinced the organization to start a surf program.

Mathis Winkler NEWPORT BEACH -- Way back when, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when Nancy Gardner went surfing at Little Corona Beach, things were different. No steps led down from Ocean Boulevard and rocks didn't secure the bluffs at the other end. City officials didn't install a concrete dam until the 1960s, and the sandy beach led deeper into the ocean. Most importantly, there wasn't a steady stream of fresh water into the waves. The beach "is a poster child of what population growth has done to the coastal area," Gardner said on a recent morning, standing on the bluffs overlooking the beach.

The recent John Wayne Airport incident involving a jet blowing a tire and the subsequent airport closure exposes one of the many fatal flaws in the reliance on John Wayne Airport to serve the future regional airport needs ("Flights diverted, delayed after tires blow in landing," Dec. 9). With John Wayne Airport's single 5,700-foot runway becoming unavailable, thousands of people, both in the air and on the ground, were put at risk by leaving all the incoming flights no alternative place to land.

-- Alex Coolman The Surfrider Foundation will host a beach cleanup today in Huntington Beach and Newport Beach, an event that coincides with the beginning of the group's new plan to combat ocean pollution. The cleanup comes to Newport Beach starting at 1 p.m. at the north side of the Santa Ana River jetty. Surfrider plans to present an award to Orange County Supervisor Tom Wilson at the event for his attention to the importance of clean water. Surfrider's "50 in 5" program, an effort to reduce river mouth pollution by 50% in 5 years, also begins today, said Nancy Gardner, president of the Newport Beach chapter of the group.