to Celebrate a Clean Ocean

Newport, RI, July 11, 2011 -- Sail Newport, Rhode Island's Public Sailing Center, is hosting the Rozalia Project, Clean the Bay and Sailors for the Sea for the city's first Trash Bash - a celebration for a clean ocean. This event is meant to bring awareness to the issues related to marine debris, its causes and its preventability. The Trash Bash will take place from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday July 13, 2011 on the Alofsin Pier at the Sail Newport facility located at 60 Fort Adams Drive in Newport. The event is free and open to the public.

America's Promise, the Rozalia Project's 60' sailboat designed by Ted Hood, and Clean the Bay's 56' Mechanized Landing Craft, BeachComber, can both be seen working in and around the Brenton Cove area of Newport Harbor beginning on Monday July 11. The boats and crews will work with youth groups from Sail Newport and IYRS to target and remove debris on Tuesday and Wednesday culminating in the Trash Bash event.

The Trash Bash Celebration begins at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday with "Open Boats." During this hour, the public and the press can board the vessels, talk with the crew, and mingle with like-minded individuals while enjoying free refreshments provided by Boat U.S. Foundation and Sail Time Charters. At 6:00 p.m., following "Open Boats," is the event program, consisting of short multi-media presentations from each of the participating organizations and a visual report of the cleanup work completed earlier in the day.

Rozalia Project and Clean the Bay are both non-profit organizations dedicated to the removal of marine debris from the Earth's largest resource - our ocean. Rozalia Project (www.rozaliaproject.org) uses a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) equipped with sonar to locate underwater debris while Clean the Bay (www.cleanthebay.us) removes floating or washed up large and hazardous debris with its mechanized landing crafts. Sailors for the Sea (www.sailorsforthesea.org) educates and engages the boating community in the worldwide protection of the oceans with programs like Clean Regattas. Together with Sail Newport (www.sailnewport.org), these organizations are working to spread awareness about their work to combat marine debris, as well as education on ways individuals can reduce their environmental impact to ensure that the ocean remains a resource for us all to enjoy.