Ocean Beach Foundation

Dear Mayor and Supervisors,

You are invited to attend a free demonstration cleaning of Ocean Beach!

When: Tuesday August 14th 10 am

Where: Ocean Beach Stairwell 15 across from the Beach Chalet

What: A Demonstration of a proposed Sand Sifter to Clean Ocean Beach with the newest technology from http://www.hbarber.com/

The Ocean Beach Foundation invites you to become involved in the transformation of Ocean Beach. We invite you to come out to the demonstration in the hopes of seeing the progress we have made and becoming energized to take it to the next level.

The OBF was formed in 2006 in response to a proposed ban on fires at Ocean Beach. As a small group of concerned citizens we first mobilized against the ban believing fires were both a right of our citizens and a grand ol' tradition of San Francisco. But looking closer at the reasons behind the call for a ban on all fires, we knew we had to take responsive action beyond the fire issue.

We first mobilized our community with thousands of e-mails in support of a solution to the problems of fires at Ocean Beach. We have since formed a 501c3 organization that works hand in hand with the National Parks Service, Parks Conservancy, Surfrider Foundation and Burners Without Borders to create the fire pit program at Ocean Beach. Together we have acted to create and install 4 artists designed fire pits and 15 NPS fire pits which are maintained twice weekly by volunteers. We hope to continue to build a respectful culture at Ocean Beach and hope you will all take part.

Our fire pit program is deemed a huge success! By installing fire pits we have created a space for visitors to build a safe fire. Safe fires are in fire pits and not buried in the sand where unsuspecting visitors may step on hot coals or otherwise sustain injury by stepping on nails glass or other debris often found around the site of a fire. The number of fires not contained in these structures is significantly down, this fact is largely due to the need for more fire pits, a busy summer night may have up to 30 fires, 20 of which are contained in the fire pits. The addition of more fire pits will alleviate this problem.

The Ocean Beach Foundation hopes to inspire a culture in beach visitors to be respectful, safe and to care for our greatest natural resources. We ask that you get involved and support the Sand Sifter Project. As current political tides would have it, Ocean beach is Largely funded by the federal government, but we as citizens believe that as San Franciscans we can rise up to create a model beach community, and that our city can support these efforts to clean and maintain a beach for our citizenry and tourists as well, so that all can benefit from a well maintained beach, with the right to gather around a warm fire.

Please support our efforts and come out to the demonstration...