The Port of San Diego has awarded the Chula Vista Elementary School District (CVESD) funding to provide transportation and resources to the District’s Coastal Education Program for the next five years.

The $68,000 award from the Port’s Environmental Advisory Committee will help cover transportation costs for the CVESD’s Coastal Education Program, hosted at Chula Vista’s Living Coast Discovery Center. This program allows students a first-hand opportunity to get to learn how pollution reaches our local bodies of water and how to prevent it from reaching the bay.

“Students actually trace the flow of water from the mountains, through the neighborhoods and into the Bay as they stare off of one of the observation decks at the Living Coast (Discovery Center),” said Karen Quirós, resource teacher in charge of the Coastal Education Program. “They see exactly how the trash in the street by their house or school goes directly into the ocean.”

As part of the program, students are given the choice of participating in grade-appropriate programs, in which they can interact with fauna such as crabs, snakes, owls, eagles, sea turtles and more. Students also collect study plankton samples observe under a microscope and plant native plants.

“Getting Children outdoors powerfully impacts their desire to preserve the natural world around them and the Coastal Education Program not only brings children close to nature, it also gives them knowledge that empowers them to make a change in their lives for the better,” Quiros added.

Since 2010, over 22,000 CVESD students have had the opportunity to visit the Living Coast Discovery Center through transportation funding provided by the Port of San Diego. The recently-awarded funds will allow for approximately 20,800 students to visit the Living Coast Discovery Center over the next five school years.