PORT ANGELES — Surfers, beach bums, sailors and beachcombers — anyone who loves clean beaches and beautiful seas — is invited to sample wine and pizza and enjoy live music tonight to celebrate the 10th annual International Surfing Day and promote clean beaches and water.
The annual fundraiser for the nonprofit Olympic Peninsula Surfrider chapter will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. today at Harbinger Winery, 2358 W. U.S. Highway 101.
Entry is $20 for adults and $10 for students with student identification cards.
Admission includes wood-fired pizza, a glass of wine or beer, a surf-related art show and live music from Good Machine, a Port Townsend “bluesy bluegrass” band and the Scott Sullivan Band.
Raffles
The evening includes a raffle of “good scores,” including a Lib Tech surfboard and snowboard, said Shawn Canepa, Peninsula Surfrider chapter member and spokesman for the event.
Tickets for the raffle for the surfboard and snowboard and for golf packages donated by 7 Cedars are $5.
Smaller surf- and beach-related items, such as sunglasses, DVDs and T-shirts, will be raffled for $1 per ticket.
Fundraiser
The event is the Olympic Peninsula chapter of the Surfrider Foundation’s International Surfing Day primary beach cleanup fundraiser and surfing celebration
International Surfing Day is celebrated by some 140 events worldwide to support the mission of the Surfrider Foundation
“Our mission is to promote cleaner water quality and beaches, for recreation as well as fishing and other activities,” Canepa said.
Proceeds from tonight’s event will be used for the Surfrider organization’s many beach cleanups held through the year and to fund portable toilets located at several popular Olympic coastal beaches, Canepa said.
Surfrider has removed hundreds of pounds of trash from beaches on the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific coast, many of which are difficult to access either by trail or water.
“There are so many waterfront properties in the North Olympic Peninsula,” Canepa said.
Some easy, some hard
He said some of the cleanups are as simple as getting out to the beach with volunteers, then packing out the trash that is collected.
However, there are some beaches that are more difficult to access — what the Surfriders call “extreme beach cleanup,” he said.
Each year, the volunteers coordinate with the Coast Guard to climb down steep hills into isolated bays and coves, gather trash, then use Coast Guard Dolphin MH-65 helicopters to airlift the trash to an area where it can be packed into trailers, sorted and taken to landfills or recycling.
Photo contest
The Surfrider Foundation also is hosting an Instagram photo contest titled “My Special Place.”
Participants may enter by posting their pictures to their Instagram profiles today through Sunday; name the city, state and country of the location in the photo; then add the hashtags #ISD14 and #MySpecialPlace and tag@Surfrider.
On Tuesday, three photos will be selected by a panel of judges to receive a prize pack valued at $1,500.
For more information, visit http://olympicpeninsula.surfrider.org.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
