Behind the Bluff
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Behind the Bluff
What Happens When Kids Touch the Water? | Dr. Jean Fruh
Dr. Jane Fruh shares how the Outside Foundation connects youth with nature through immersive experiences while working to protect and preserve local environments through community-based conservation initiatives.
• Executive Director of the Outside Foundation, working to get kids outside and protect local environments in Hilton Head Island, SC
• Kids and Kayaks program takes over 1,100 seventh graders annually onto the water, ensuring all children participate regardless of economic status
• Earth Day HHI initiative engages 25 community groups and 5 schools in cleanup efforts that removed three-quarters of a ton of trash
• Oyster Shell Recycling Program has recycled 165 tons of shells and created 27 reef structures that filter water and provide essential habitat
• The foundation builds "living shorelines" that naturally prevent erosion and support coastal ecosystems
• Dr. Fruh believes in the power of immersive natural experiences: "If they can't touch it and experience it, how are they going to love it?"
• Volunteers can participate in upcoming reef building events, including July 10th at Palmetto Bluff
Visit www.outsidefoundation.org to register to volunteer or learn more about supporting their environmental initiatives.
Are you ready to live an active lifestyle? Welcome to Behind the Bluff, where we believe every moment of your life is an opportunity to pursue wellness on your terms. Life is an opportunity to pursue wellness on your terms. I'm your host, Jeff Ford, and today we're honored to be joined by a truly inspiring leader in environmental education and community engagement, Dr Jane Frew. She is the executive director of the Outside Foundation, a non-profit based in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Their mission is to get kids outside and to protect and preserve our local environment. With a background in education and athletic training and a deep commitment to sustainability and youth development, Dr Frew brings a unique and passionate perspective, encouraging us all to not just be takers from our natural environment, but to give back. She believes that every day can and should be Earth Day. Dr Jean Frew, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Well, thanks, jeff, it's great to be here. Thanks for the invite.
Speaker 1:You are so welcome and I'd love to jump right in. Can you share the story behind the Outside Foundation's mission to get kids outside and protect and preserve local environments? What inspired this dual focus?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a really nice kind of story in that when I moved here to Hilton Head to kind of relocate my mom and to make sure and my husband and I had already purchased a home here I came without a job and I quickly decided, as a retired educator, if I could teach in a classroom, I certainly could teach in a kayak, and how exciting would that be. And so when you go to work for outside brands, it's almost like you're welcomed into a family of people just absolutely love, on any given day, being outside. And so, you know, I quickly became a kayak nature guide master, naturalist and just love that type of immersion. And among the programs that we were doing and had already been done at Outside was this program called Kids and Kayaks. It was started by a couple of middle school teachers, oh, 20 or so years ago, but it really lacked really any structure. It certainly didn't have much money, and so those kids whose parents could afford you know that kayak tour with Outside went and most sat in the classroom, and so it was always the thought of, you know, mike Overton, the founder and CEO of Outside Brands that you know I mean this is the future of his business, right, if we're not engaging that next generation, if we're not passing on that culture of you know, really conservation that so defines this area of the Lowcountry, you know we're really missing out and that's not sustainable.
Speaker 2:And so we began the Outside Foundation with that thought in mind. How can we provide leadership as a nonprofit? We could be writing grants and getting money to support this and furthering some of the other really great sustainability initiatives that outside had already begun. You would never be offered a plastic bag in any of the retail stores and in fact in our Hilton Head location you don't even have to have a bag, you can trade it off for a wooden nickel and donate that. So there were a number of initiatives at outside that really fueled the energy. We started a green team at the company and then from there we really decided that we'd have to go full bore and we'd have to really start our own nonprofit, and so that was 12 years ago. So we're really kind of just in our 11th year. We just celebrated, had a big celebration of the 10th year and we're doing great, you're rocking and rolling. We just celebrated, had a big celebration of the 10th year and and, uh, we're, we're, we're doing great, you're rocking and rolling, we are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's. It's great to hear that it stemmed from middle school teachers trying to get kids on kayaks and now there's funding to get kids to be able to have that experience so early on. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said if there isn't an organization out there teaching our youth, our younger generation, about conservation efforts, where will we be?
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, you know, if they can't touch it and experience it, how are they going to love it? If they don't love it, why would they protect it? So it's important to have this level of immersion. Last year we took over 1,100 seventh graders throughout our county, both north and south of the broad, in the Beaufort area. The Beaufort area is a particularly good target that we've acquired in the last couple of years because these are mostly Title I schools and so there are children that live there, have lived there, were born there, just like here, and they've never experienced really anything on the water, and so it's super important for us to be reaching out to them, and your community support makes that happen. You know, we scholarship these kids pretty heavily and nobody stays in the classroom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's amazing. Now, jean, with your background in athletic training, sports medicine, you're a retired educator 25 years in higher education. I found it so interesting that kinesiology, movement science that was your specialty. What led you to environmental advocacy and this part of leadership at the Outside Foundation?
Speaker 2:Well, you know I mean my interest in just flat out being outside just started as a child.
Speaker 2:You know I mean it's that back in the day when you could just run free. And you know my mom was a first grade teacher and so you know we spent so much time outside and she encouraged so much in nature for both my brother and me, and so it started really early for me, and so to me the opportunity to have a second career is really amazing, and so I'm able to put a lot of the energy that I have and passion I have for not only being out, in outside and in you know nature, but also passing that on and connecting other people to not only experiencing it but protecting it in little ways. At the Outside Foundation, we really believe in the collective power of the individual, and so most of our events, you know, are based on you know individuals being able to get tangible experiences, to go out and see that you know they can make a difference. Sometimes we have 12 people, you know people swing by to help us bag oysters, and we'll do over 100 bags.
Speaker 1:With just 12 people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, with just 12 people, because it's kind of like assembly line.
Speaker 1:Remarkable.
Speaker 2:It is because those bags will become part of a larger reef and so on and so forth, and will have a lasting impact on our shorelines.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, let's go ahead and jump into the three main areas of the programming Kids and kayaks. We've touched on briefly Earth Day HHI I'm excited to talk about that and an oyster recycling program that you've just recently alluded to here. Before we dig into the details of each, could you please start us off with a brief overview of how these events programs get annually scheduled? And also, as you know, we have a lot of listeners who are members here at Palmetto Bluff. I'd love to hear more about the connection and how these programs take place here, even if it's a small capacity.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 2:Well, it's interesting that when we started the foundation and we're still pretty small, I mean, I'm the only employee and we have contractors that create a team, a really great team when we first started, we were really focused on basically building that kids and kayaks program, but along the way, outside brands had always been doing these kayak-based cleanups and so we had been doing those, and then we found that there really wasn't any organized effort to clean beaches.
Speaker 2:So we did that In 2020-21, when we were really stymied by COVID and people not being able to get out and do basically these programs, we came up with the idea of having this Earth Day initiative and throwing a hashtag in front of it and just kind of making it a community call to action, and so that's where that evolved to. And then last year we got the idea that, well, why don't we connect that to all of our litter sweeps throughout the year and just make sure that we continue to impress upon our community that you know, every day really should be seen as Earth Day and that that 22nd of April only serves to remind us of that? And so I mean, that's how that, and the oyster shell recycling was just wow, that wasn't on our radar at all and I had an opportunity in 2016 to write an environmental grant with Patagonia, which they're really pretty competitive.
Speaker 2:And I really kind of didn't even have the slightest idea what I would write it for, and so I was asking all kinds of people, and I finally ended up at, you know, calling Al Stokes at Waddell, and he suggested that Hilton Head didn't have a. It was the only municipality in Beaufort County that didn't have an oyster shell bin.
Speaker 1:Nothing existed before this program as part of the Outside Foundation.
Speaker 2:Well, it's a bigger program, it's the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources program but they're two hours away and so they rely on community connections to really organize collecting shell. And so we have all these seafood restaurants. People love oysters all year long and so I wrote a grant to kind of connect that statewide program to our community. And I was fortunate that we had a local recycle company that was willing to jump on board. And oyster shells are heavy and when you have retirees hauling them around that's kind of frightening because you don't want them loading really heavy things, so we have a very specific truck that can lift them up and weigh them.
Speaker 2:The Coastal Discovery Museum was wonderful to give us a nice location to construct that bin, which was far away and yet but very accessible so that anyone can just drop off their shells in addition to our collections. And so that's how that got started and so that wasn't even on our radar and has become really a cornerstone to how we deliver our mission.
Speaker 1:It sounds like a lot of community partners stemmed out of that, where it just kind of happened.
Speaker 2:Everything we do we rely on partnerships and really I spent that whole first year as we were waiting on our 501c3, just talking to partners about you know how can we deliver? We're so small and those partnerships have grown and grown and grown and grown, and I think, particularly with the other environmental nonprofits. We all recognize that. You know that, again, that collaboration, that collectiveness is so, so, very important because we're really maybe approaching it differently, but we're all after the same thing we want to conserve, we want to protect. Why we moved here, why we live here, and that is just the stunning beauty around us in the wildlife and you know, taking a drive out here to Palmetto Bluff is just lowers your blood pressure.
Speaker 1:Instantaneously yeah.
Speaker 2:And you think that we want to keep these places natural? Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, and just to key in on that brief message, we all moved here and live here for a reason, and so protecting it and starting to learn more about how we can each individually contribute to keeping it as beautiful and serene of an environment it is, I think, is going to go a long way and create this trickle effect just across not only members here at Palmetto Bluff, but anyone living in the low country. Gene, let's jump into Earth Day. Hilton Head Island Festival, the hashtag I think that's awesome. You put a hashtag in front of something and it can definitely go viral. That seems to be a community staple. Just researching more personally about the Outside Foundation, you can see there's a lot of buy-in for that event that y'all do annually. How has it evolved over the years and what impact has it had on local environment awareness?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it really has exploded, and I can't take any credit for the hashtag that was just, you know, one of our contractors came up with that. It's just absolutely brilliant. And so, you know, we just again wanted that sort of ability to offer an opportunity, a pretty easy-to-access opportunity, for community members to come out and really celebrate Earth Day. And so that's kind of how it got started. And again, it started just after COVID, and so it was an activity where people could pretty much just go out in their neighborhood. They could visit a park, they could walk down the beach, they could do what they felt comfortable doing. When we were just coming out of COVID.
Speaker 2:And so what we did was we came up with an idea of how they could register as a group, and then we worked with Palmetto Pride statewide and got our equipment for that, so that we would have plenty of bags and grabbers and things. And then we reached out really to the community, to our beachfront hotels, to our service groups, and said, hey, register your group, organize your cleanup, we'll give you supplies, and then when you're all done, you know, take some pictures, tag us on social media and we'll look at that collective impact. And so this particular Earth Day that we just and we're still getting reports and we have 25 groups, five schools, 25 groups, five schools 25 groups, five schools.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of participation.
Speaker 2:Three quarters of a ton of trash. So far we still have a few groups we haven't tracked down to get their final numbers, but that's really, really impactful. And that wasn't just on Earth Day, that was Earth Week, and then the school's initiatives took place over Earth Month.
Speaker 2:And so we reached out into the schools and we gave them incentives. We partnered with Palmetto Running Company, and so you know, it really came about that we wanted students to really kind of come up with their own ideas and their plans, and when did they want to do this, and so that worked out quite well. We gave them all scales. Every group got a scale so they could take pictures plus weigh their trash. So that worked really well.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of scales it is. They're not super expensive.
Speaker 2:And then on the actual Earth Day, we partnered the town of Hilton Head came over with volunteers and this was the first year that we had a really organized separation of our trash. We were able to instantly separate our trash into clean, recycle and trash itself and we weighed everything and you know, 212 pounds, I think, of trash, total, 56 pounds of recyclables. So if you kind of think about that, if we're pulling away bottles and plastic, you know plastic bottles and glass bottles and you know really that's your recyclables, right, all the rest was just that kind of crazy plastic that makes it onto our beach.
Speaker 2:We picked up 336 straws in two hours.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:And we put them in a bucket and then we went over to the bank for the after party and we had people actually guess.
Speaker 1:How many straws. It was a little bit of a competition.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we gave away a bunch of prizes, but yeah, so it's really dramatic when you put them in a bucket. Cigarette butts, though, crushed everything.
Speaker 1:Really Still a lot of cigarette butts out on the beach.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, they permit smoking, certainly, but there's no ashtrays, there's no really. It requires really individual responsibility to take care of that, and I think people think it's harmless. But the filters themselves are filled with plastic and that's pretty darn close to being a microplastic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then it gets into the nano and you know the rest of the story. But yeah, the cigarette butts remain a huge, huge issue. And of course that is not just Hilton Head, that is nationally. Statistics tell us that cigarette butts are the number one form of litter in the United States.
Speaker 1:I had no idea that that would be the number one form. I mean we we do hear about straws, we hear about, um, just plastic bottles in general, but cigarette butts and, if I heard correctly, only about a fourth of what y'all picked up was recyclable about that range. So the other stuff was just the non recyclables. Not great for environment. How do we limit the consumption? How do we change our behaviors?
Speaker 2:Styrofoam it's awful stuff because it becomes almost nurdle-like. It's really hard. It blows around. Plastic bags, single-use plastic bags wrappers, Food wrappers are real common out there.
Speaker 1:Straw wrappers. Straw wrappers, those kids' little juice packets, the plastic ones.
Speaker 2:When you take the straw out, that's a little tiny wrapper and I don't think it's intentional, but they just blow away and so we pick up a ton of that stuff. And when you think about, wow, 212 pounds and sure a good percentage of that was heavier bottles and cans and things but wow, these things don't weigh anything.
Speaker 1:And yet we got so much of it. That's significant and that's just over a week period.
Speaker 2:That was one morning, that was one morning.
Speaker 1:That amount, two hours, yeah, so it puts it in perspective of how much is out there and how much can be done, just by taking a look at our environments and having strategic times when we're all going out together to collect up the trash.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and again, I think, collecting the trash we can. We'll never stop doing that and that's really not the answer. The answer is raising awareness and, I think, using, again, collective action to really work towards change, and that change has to come with people taking the responsibility to pack in and pack out, leaving no trace, and then also the town really kind of, I think, coming to terms with the fact that if you're going to allow smoking, then you need a solution, because you know much like providing trash cans. It's nice to think people are just going to take away their own trash, but we have to, you know, provide cans.
Speaker 1:We want to make it easy for them to do that, right, right. So I mean, if you're going, to allow smoking, then you know. Yeah, what's the strategy on the cleanup?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then beachfront hotels you know need to be thinking about. You know why do we stick a straw in everything you know?
Speaker 1:it's just amazing, it's really amazing.
Speaker 2:You know, I don't, I don't, I, you know, I've been drinking wine for years.
Speaker 1:I don't need a straw. You don't need a straw, and then you know the same thing holds for my water.
Speaker 2:So I think there's it's always, you know it's job security. There's always going to be a battle there. But I think you know, the more that we can make people aware of these amount reaching our beaches and eventually ending up in our water and on our food chain, the more that we'll begin to create that change.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. The more we'll be motivated to change our ways, I believe. Well, thank you for more detail on Earth Day HHI hashtag. Is that how?
Speaker 2:it is Hashtag first, hashtag first Got it.
Speaker 1:Got it? Um, let's go ahead and just take a step back into the kids in kayaks program. In your eyes, why is it crucial to engage young people with the outdoors? We've touched on it a little bit, but I'd love for you, Jean, to go a bit further.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure, I mean I think again going back to outside brands and if you live here at Palmetto Bluff and you've had the opportunity to head out for a cruise with any of our captains or go paddling or paddle boarding, you're basically being led by people who had these amazing childhood experiences. You know Boo Harrell is a person who grew up on the water and I think you know they're transferring that passion and love and knowledge to people and we need to do that to the next generation. And you know we often say at the Outside Foundation that just the regular tourist, the average tourist, has a much better chance than going kayaking than a child who's born here, and that's not sustainable.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we don't have a whole lot of public access. Island Rec is doing a great job in building programs, but it still costs money, and so this Kids and Kayaks program, as it has developed, has really leveled that playing field. You know, no matter your socioeconomic status.
Speaker 1:You can come out and get that experience Absolutely.
Speaker 2:An entire school day with your teachers. For those like me who learn by doing, by immersing, it's brilliant. You can talk about phytoplankton all day in the classroom, but we take nets and allow students to scoop it up, and then we have microscopes that they can actually look at phytoplankton and it becomes much more than something that's described to you or that you read about in a book. And so they're getting their hands into dock fouling and-.
Speaker 1:What is dock fouling, oh?
Speaker 2:it's so much fun.
Speaker 2:So the kids are basically laying on their bellies and they reach underneath and there's a whole community of filter feeders and sessile kind of stationary and so they'll take little bits and we'll put them into Petri dishes and kind of pull them apart and look at them with hand scopes and such and describe, and so they're looking at the food web, essentially, and it's fascinating that they can take one piece of sponge or a clump of seaweed that appears really nothing and they begin to pull it apart and it has little tiny crabs and the kids are just fascinated.
Speaker 1:They're like blown away with just the intricacies of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a little grass, shrimp, and then you can start to talk about the food web. How does a barnacle get its food? It's stuck to something you know and so it creates these just sort of light bulb explosions. For these kids Like, and they're just, you don't even have to have a set thing, that you're telling them that cause they just keep asking questions. And then we have parents that are like chaperoning and they're like, oh my goodness, I didn't know that you know, so it's really, really fun. It's a fun activity.
Speaker 1:Well, to give kids an opportunity to be that curious about something that they're not exposed to is just a game changer for how they look at the world, and we lose that so much as adults. We forget to ask questions the way that kids do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that excitement, that level. You know that the walls are gone, you're outside. They spend their whole day outside. We eat lunch outside, they'll spend. You know we split the group in half and in the morning half the kids go kayaking and that's a contracted through. You know outfitters. So we use, you know, obviously outside and coastal expeditions, and we have professional guides, interpretive, naturalists, expeditions and we have professional guides, interpretive, naturalists it's really.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's the level, it's the full experience. Oh yeah, and so when you know a dolphin swims by or you see an oyster squirt, that that really frames an experience for a child you know, that's an unforgettable experience and that's what we want um, you know them to to take with them.
Speaker 2:And it was really interesting. I was at the may river cleanup last saturday and may river high school kids were there as a group kind of helping out. And so we started asking them hey, did you do kids and kayaks as a seventh grader? And they were like, yeah, it was such a great day, yeah. We really had fun, and so we're now really kind of getting those stories and wanting to capture them yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now how it's scheduled, is it? There's so many schools in the low country area, I'm sure you just have a day for each school and it all gets planned out well in advance, so this is part of their curriculum.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what we did over the years was we invited administrators, the superintendent, everybody we could, to experience the day. So now it's an actually almost required field trip. So we don't even do the scheduling. School district science coordinators do the scheduling, so teachers can't really opt out of it.
Speaker 2:What we do, we have a number of summer workshops that we attend to help them to understand that the children won't be rolling over in kayaks, everybody's in a life jacket, so on and so forth, to help them to really ease their fears. We do all the paperwork at the very beginning of the school year, we do all the public schools in the fall, and so we actually we just do the logistics of the volunteers, the master naturalists, the Audubon, the you know watershed people, the people who come in with expertise that can do the dockside stations, and then we contract the kayaking with the outfitters and we take about anywhere from 40 to no more than 50 kids a day for safety, and then we contract the kayaking with the outfitters and we take about anywhere from 40 to no more than 50 kids a day for safety, and so it really is a very kind of just great individualized learning experience by the time we break down to dockside activities. There are four or five kids in a group.
Speaker 1:That's incredible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we do public, private, charter and homeschool the entire county.
Speaker 1:So the reach is beyond public schools. It's getting to every child out there who's in seventh grade.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it has to be sure. Yeah, I mean that's a non-negotiable. I mean we need to make sure that these children have this experience and we're fortunate we have a lot of community support. We do over half of the students here, palmetto Bluff.
Speaker 1:That's great.
Speaker 2:Because your Bluffton high school, your Bluffton middle schools are so big and growing and so we're getting a big chunk of these kids to really kind of get the May River. And boy, do they need to protect the May River? Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it's, and it's a special river, absolutely Well, thanks for the increased detail. Just behind kids and kayaks, it's so fascinating to hear just the specificity to what they experience on that day. Let's go ahead, switch gears and jump into the oyster recycling program. You've thrown out some solid stats. So far as I understand it, the foundation has recycled over 165 tons of oyster shells. You've rebuilt 27 reefs, with seven more on track for this summer. What does this process entail and what are the ecological benefits to this initiative?
Speaker 2:So again, we're the community extension of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. They have a SCORE program.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, so South Carolina Oyster Restoration and Enhancement and that was begun probably about 20 years ago and that whole small division of the SEDNR just focuses on. There's two divisions and, just like basically with oysters in general, you have the commercial side where you're actively harvesting and bringing those to market, and then you have an ecological side, and oysters are just simply remarkable in our ecosystem. They're ecosystem engineers and they are truly a keystone species. And so when we harvest them, we actually remove the possibility of an attachment site for a new or for a baby oyster to attach. They need an oyster larva, needs a hard surface, a substrate to attach to.
Speaker 2:So we live in a very larval, rich area, which is very, very fortunate, and our oyster population is really strong. But we don't have much substrate. You know, we don't have rocks, we have mud, water, grass, and so by working on this side of that SCORE program, the ecological side, we're basically building reefs alongside the SEDNR that will serve to enhance the ecological importance of the oysters. And so you know, oysters are powerful filter feeders. As they grow and they become about three inches or adult, they can they can filter up to two and a half gallons of water an hour two and a half gallons of water an hour and there are millions of them out there, and the more that we put recycled shell out there, the more we encourage those babies or give those babies the opportunity to attach and to survive.
Speaker 2:They don't attach to something, they float to the bottom and they're sunk into the mud or they're eaten by a larger critter, and so we want to make sure there's plenty of substrate out there. Secondly, they create habitat. So oyster reefs are a huge habitat for over 120 species. If you take a look at the commercial seafood industry in South Carolina, it's a multi-multi-million dollar industry. Top four Number one finfish. Number two shrimp. Number three crab. Number four oysters.
Speaker 2:If you crab, number four oysters oysters, fourth on the list removed number four, you would have no number three, no number two and no number one, because in the larval state these members of the of the of the seafood would have nowhere to go. They would know where have nowhere to hide.
Speaker 2:There wouldn't be an environment for them right and they wouldn't be able to do their filter, feeding and survival uh as effectively. And so oysters are really a keystone species, and so the more that we can work on the ecological side, the better off they are. And second thing they do, and is really a big part of the work that we're doing here at Palmetto Bluff, is that they're really a nice breakwater, and so as we build these reefs in this area, we're building them along the bluffs a lot of boat wake, and as that boat wake comes in these bags of shell and then reefs as they grow on them and oysters attach, they're very absorbent.
Speaker 2:And so they're able to dissipate some of that wake force, so they trap sediment behind them and that sediment allows basically the rhizomes of the Spartina grass to reach out. And so we're trying to build that edge a tiny bit. We can't save the bluffs, but we can certainly help to dissipate some of the forces, and so two of our builds this summer and actually it's kind of a one-day-two build will be on July 10th here right at the bluffs. Very cool. What section of the bluffs Very cool.
Speaker 1:What section of the bluffs?
Speaker 2:The bluffs, yeah just off South Wilson.
Speaker 1:Off South Wilson Interesting.
Speaker 2:And so we've been building there for four years and it's really dramatic to look at year one versus year four, because it's just you can't even tell they're bags there and the entirety of the kind of the area behind the bags has now become more sediment trapped got a lot more grass growing, we're planting as well. We'll plant 1,500 more Spartina plugs to encourage again. Those are really great for slowing erosion along the edge.
Speaker 1:That's what I was going to ask you about. It seems like this is a big play with warding off erosion.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's know. There's just so many threats to the shoreline and there's just so many people out there with boats and not just boats, but boats with big motors. And as they go by, they're creating that constant weight kind of chips away at things, and so you know these are called living shorelines for that reason. I mean, look at all the things that they do and you know the cost of doing that is far less than building walls and far less destructive.
Speaker 1:And it's a more natural way of going about it right. 100% natural, because now, if we build it up, it sounds like, then it's going to just help filter the water even further.
Speaker 2:Sure, sure, and there are different ways that you can build them. You can use these sort of UV resistant nylon, or you can use the, the manufactured wire reefs, so there's a few of those out there as well. Um, there's oyster castles. There's different technology, and that technology seems to be growing and growing, and so, um, we're hoping to be able to soon connect a lot of our local, uh may riverfront home owners to ways in which they can build their own living shorelines oh outstanding yeah I'm sure many of those homeowners would jump right on board with creating that along their properties.
Speaker 2:It's not cheap, but it can be done. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Wow, well, thanks for the elaboration, just on the impact that the oyster shells are making and how they get essentially put back into the ecosystem.
Speaker 2:Yeah, If you recycle one oyster, two shells you get 20 in return.
Speaker 1:So say that again, if you recycle one oyster. Yeah, so say you eat an oyster at an oyster roast and that's shells of being.
Speaker 2:That's where we capture just a huge amount of our shell right.
Speaker 1:From these oyster roasts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it was going to the landfill and we just said, oh, wait a minute, we'll take that. So you know we're diverting, you know four to five tons, you know, just from the Hilton Head Oyster Fest and-.
Speaker 2:Unbelievable and also the same thing up in the Beaufort Oyster Fest. So you're enjoying your oysters and you toss those shells into it, one half of it, one shell can attract and provide an attachment site for 10,. You know baby oysters and as they grow again, you know, hopefully they're beginning to to filter and filter and solidify and survive, and their chances for survival are much greater when they're in a group and so yeah, so it's a one, one oyster creates compound interest.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's, it's amazing.
Speaker 2:It really is. It's so easy to do. And now, you know, first year we collected at festivals, we had to sort of run around and tell people, oh, don't put your trash in there, and do this and do that. Now we just sort of stand around.
Speaker 1:And everybody knows what to do now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in fact, they've been trained at the Beaufort Oyster Festival, we actually park our trailer in the middle of the festival and people just walk over and throw their shells in. So it's it's really kind of changed and I think people are kind of getting it and um, and we're hoping to to, you know, up the number of restaurants and and really continue to to, uh, to help the SEGNR with this really important program that they're doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, jean you, you received the Keep South Carolina Beautiful. I didn't even know this was an award. This is amazing that we have awards like this, but the Keep South Carolina Beautiful Volunteer of the Year Award, which I imagine is a significant honor. What does this recognition mean to you personally and professionally?
Speaker 2:Well, I think you know it's it's you know I was. I was quite surprised, but I think it recognized a lot of the grassroots efforts that you know. You know it was a lot of just me when we first started the foundation and so you know, I serve on a lot of committees in the county and do a lot of work across different platforms and I think that just my energy that I put towards kind of getting communities connected and doing litter sweeps and energizing people to organize their own litter sweeps, I think it was a recognition of that. But really I think too that it's more important to think about, you know, when I'm retired and gone. I want to make sure that this foundation is on such solid ground that we continue to inspire people to, you know, to think about their impact and, to, you know, think about using reusable bags, to think about declining, you know, a single-use plastic bottle and you know how can I remember to bring my own bottle?
Speaker 2:And so just think about options and also about retailers and businesses. How can we make our businesses more sustainable? And restaurants you're basically serving seafood that's coming sourced locally as an important part of your menu, and so in order to maintain that local seafood again remember of the four top part components of our commercial fisheries here in South Carolina they're dependent upon oysters and the role that those oyster reefs play in our local ecosystem. So I think it just boils down to that. I think it was just really the energy and the time and that kind of can-get-it-done spirit that really defined, I think, my first five or six years with the foundation, having started with just about nothing. We started from scratch, and so it was a real learning experience. I keep learning everything the day after. I need to know it. I'm with you there. Yeah so, but I think it's. It was just that kind of can-do, can-do attitude and and uh, you know, and I've had a lot of support and I have a terrific team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean I think getting hooked up with outside brands and having just their years of experience here in in the green team, as you called it, like being able to have collective individuals galvanizing this, this effort on, and now like looking back five, six years, starting something from scratch. I mean, regardless of the award, it has to be so rewarding to see the behavior change that you've able to create with people on an individual level, and just the camaraderie of kids in kayaks, the oyster program with the various restaurants involved, and just I find, with stuff like this, things that make sense, things that we can all be collectively doing, it's probably not a hard sell for you to get folks as involved once they understand the impact that these programs make.
Speaker 2:Oh sure, I mean, I think people are always interested. It's a matter of changing habits, and sometimes habits are hard to change, and so you really do have to be persistent, and I think it's always an approach of you know you can't scold people for stuff, you can just encourage them.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I think, and I think being just good examples of what we do is really most important, and so I'm always admonishing my husband for forgetting the bag when he walks in. I say don't tell them who you are. So we want to encourage people as much as they can to try to make those changes. What would change your habit? And don't take on a whole bunch of new habits, but maybe commit to one or two a year. That really can change things. And again, by getting more kids involved. That's where we see change occurring. Because I think when kids are encouraging their parents to separate recyclables at home and they're encouraging them to pack a lunch, that's, you know, something that can be not thrown out, but rather you take those containers back home, and not everybody has the economic means to do that. But there are many, many ways in which children can voice their support for what they've learned in kids in kayaks and what they've learned in the classroom and through their experiences and through their volunteer work. We have kids now who have done all three program areas.
Speaker 1:Really Like. They've gotten involved in various events and been part of each of all three.
Speaker 2:Participated in Kids and Kayaks, came out for a litter sweep and then helped either bag or bag shell or build a reef.
Speaker 1:Wow, and they just register on their own. No, usually they either bag or bag shell or build a reef.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wow, and they just register on their own, and no, usually they come along with a parent. Yeah, yeah, Usually there's a parent connected and that's good Cause you, you know you've got two people involved there. So you know you got, and we're hoping that they're sharing that with their, their peer group and, uh, you know, just thinking of it as is really cool, you know, if we had one young guy and he came out and helped build one of the reefs on the 18th Fairway of the Harbortown Golf Course, that's pretty impressive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and now he can say that he did that.
Speaker 2:He can take his kids out there and show them one day? Oh goodness.
Speaker 2:Because, those aren't going away. So really cool. You know, the impact that we're making will be one that will sort of just multiply as we get more kids growing up who've had the kids and kayaks experience, who've maybe were in Boy Scouts and they participated in, you know, an oyster shell bagging event cleanup every year of Pinkney Island Wildlife Refuge 200 some odd people come out for that and it's a lot of service groups, our high schools, they have environmental groups and they have interact through Rotary and things like that, and so these kids want to do things and so each and every time you see kids that are now heading up environmental groups, you think, wow, that's really cool.
Speaker 1:That's how we make the change. Yeah, you're stretching generations, no doubt, with these efforts, and I mean for me just hearing you explain it. It's all about creating a legacy behind these practices and being able to field that next generation to continue the efforts. So we're getting close to the end of our time, jean. I'd love for us to take a little pause here and allow you to kind of inspire listeners to get involved. So how can they support the Outside Foundation's efforts and even how can they think differently about protecting our low country environment?
Speaker 2:Sure, well, you know we invite people to give as they feel. You know you can come out and volunteer and give your time. That's great. If you go to our website, wwwoutsidefoundationorg, you can actually just click on. You know, register to volunteer and all of our opportunities will just pop open, including July 10th, which is, you know, building the reef. Here. We'll pick you up on the chapel dock and bring you over, like we did last year, if you want to really kind of get your hands into some mud and all of that stuff.
Speaker 2:We host so many kids and kayaks programs out here and just having people come by and check it out, and then maybe you see something and think, wow, we're teaching these kids how to use binoculars and we're doing birding Well, I can do that. So we're always looking for volunteers who have an interest in a bit of a background to do that. So you know, that's to me, you know, a great way for people to get involved. We have fundraisers, our biggest of which is in February and it's the Page Island Oyster Roast, and so we bring boats from here at Palmetto Bluff. We always have a nice group from Palmetto Bluff coming over and that's you know our biggest fundraiser of the year.
Speaker 2:It's a it's a day on a private island. You can drive your own boat over and we'll park it for you. That's so cool and, um, it's a great way, um, to immerse yourself, to see that we have an island that is pretty much leave no trace and that we celebrate the foundation on that day and we collect all those shells, um, but we have great food, with. Bluffton Seafood Company comes over and prepares all the food, and it's just a wonderful day and a great experience. And there's lots of conversation about the work we do. We have a great auction, so that's a great way to give.
Speaker 2:We have two of our board members who live here at Palmetto Bluff our board chair, ron Mealy, and also Ted Neely, and so we do have them out into our community and they certainly can answer questions, and we're always looking for ways in which we can and this is a perfect example of ways we can let people know about the work that we're doing, because we're really small and we're still pretty small even after 10 years our impact is really really big.
Speaker 2:We think and and we want people to know about that we want people to join in, and if you and if you love nature, and if you feel that difference and if you have thoughts that, yeah, my greatest childhood memories were actually when my family went on vacation and did this, or when we were at the lake and I did this, and you think about that and you think about how nature, and not some TV show or video game, was your greatest childhood memory, think about the generation that's coming up now and we're in a really a hard position because you know you don't run free anymore and you don't go down to the docks and hop in that dinghy that maybe your parents had tied up and just go have fun and then explain yourself later to your parents about where you were.
Speaker 2:I mean, we just don't have that opportunity. So we as a community have to really be invested in how we can make sure that the kids are getting outside and having these great experiences and you know, palmetto Bluff does a pretty good job of that they have a lot of great programs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the kids camps, the conservancy classes, I mean that is bar none some of the coolest types of experiences here and we want all kids to have that.
Speaker 2:So maybe not those particular experiences, but we want them to have a day where they're just sheer joy and we've had kids cry after Kids and Kayaks because they have said best day ever.
Speaker 1:That's got to be so rewarding.
Speaker 2:It is pretty cool, it really is, and so we hope to capture a lot of those stories and and the and the next year, and maybe um turn that into um really our, our next 10 years, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I've been so appreciative of you sharing more and us having the time to bring awareness to outside foundation and the impact that it has. Even though you've said that you're very small right now, I think this podcast it could go viral, you never know, and awareness will just explode from here. So you get big soon. Thank you so much, jean. I'd love to just ask you our final question what does wellness mean to you?
Speaker 2:Oh, I think you know there's a great book out, it's called Blue Mind and I think wellness to me is not just access to the water and the fact that for me, being around the water, for my family my oldest grandson actually lives here now and works here came here as an infant. So you know, for me I think wellness is getting outside and immersing in nature and living in that moment. Just taking that moment, taking that time, not feeling rushed, committing to you know, basically immersing yourself, and just that type of kind of reset for your brain is so incredibly important. And I do think that there is a huge benefit to immersion in nature for all of us and not all of us have access to that, but when given access, I think it changes who we are and I know for me personally it's been a huge part of who I am. Getting outside, being outside, being in nature, has really kind of changed the framework of the frantic pace of what has been, you know, a career in high education and you know, just yeah.
Speaker 2:And just putting out fires and doing things that just were very, very stressful and and fortunately I I I never missed a day, I don't think, where I didn't push away from my desk and go for a walk or go for a run. I made that part of my sort of self-improvement.
Speaker 1:Self-care practice, lifestyle Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And I think that hopefully we can instill those possibilities in our next generation that you need to push away from your desk, you need to get out and immerse yourself in nature and you'll feel better.
Speaker 1:Yep, now more than ever yeah.
Speaker 2:Exercise is medicine, and getting outside to exercise is definitely, I think, a good dose.
Speaker 1:I couldn't agree more Well. Once again, dr Jean Frew, it's been an amazing time together. I'm so excited to hopefully get registered for some of your events in the future. I mean, it seems like all our members here will be excited about the opportunity to get involved as well. And, um, yeah, that's sort of that's a wrap on our our time here, terrific.
Speaker 2:I hope to see you out there.
Speaker 1:I hope to be out there soon. I've got a five-year-old so I can just when you were describing the um dock diving, what was the phrasing? Oh, dock fouling. I was like and I can just imagine Mia out there on her belly digging underneath the dock.
Speaker 1:So it's it's going to be happening. Uh well, listeners, feel free to hang out with me for a few more minutes and get some healthy momentum for the rest of your week Time. What will you do with it? Because it's not that much that you've been given here on earth. Even if you do live for a hundred years, that's not that long. If you're anything like me, you think about the concept of time quite a bit, almost daily. You wonder if you're using it wisely and you wonder are you using it in the way that you're meant to?
Speaker 1:After I edit and produce this podcast today, I'm on my way up to celebrate the life of my papa, my grandfather, who passed away just a few weeks ago. My grandfather who passed away just a few weeks ago. I think it's fair to say that anytime we lose a loved one, you go right to reflecting on how short life truly is. My papa was a man of few words, but his presence spoke volumes. Papa didn't need to say much for you to feel how deeply he loved his family. He had a quiet strength about him and always wore a warm smile. As I reflect on his life and the influence he had in mine, I realize that he was there for every meaningful chapter of my life, even when it made it inconvenient for him to be there with the sheer distance between us. My papa attended my college graduation in Clemson, south Carolina, and he stood with us on the shores of Hilton Head Island as I said yes to the love of my life, lindsay. And one of the most treasured memories I will forever hold in my heart is when my grandfather, papa, and my grandmother, grammy, surprised me at the hospital in Asheville, north Carolina, the morning my daughter, mia, was born. When I asked Grammy, my grandmother, how in the world he convinced him to travel such a far distance again, I was surprised to learn that there was no hesitation. He was excited to go. And let me just say this that at the time they were in their 80s, it wasn't an easy drive down from New Hampshire. It wasn't an easy drive down from New Hampshire.
Speaker 1:After we made it to our hospital room, I'll never forget that Papa mysteriously disappeared, as he often would. My dad and I went looking for him and we found him down in the lobby at the blood drive. Yes, there was a blood drive that happened to be going on on the morning that my daughter was born, papa was right there. He had a needle and tube in his arm and blood was flowing into the bag. You see, if you donated blood that day, those who donated were eligible to receive two $20 gift cards. How could Papa pass that up? That moment in time reminded me of how deeply playful, logical, kind, generous and simple of a man he was. If it seemed like a good idea, papa wasn't the type of guy to hesitate.
Speaker 1:And that's the question I have for you today. Where in your life are you hesitating? Is there a good idea right in front of you that you're not acting on? We are all guilty of going through life with hesitation, especially when we know what's right in front of us is the life that we're actually meant to live. We just have to take it. Work for it.
Speaker 1:So for this week, don't forget that being there for the meaningful chapters of life with your loved ones is what they'll remember most when you're gone. Don't let inconvenience be your deciding factor in whether you'll attend. And, most importantly, stop hesitating. Live the life you're meant to live. That brings us to the conclusion of this week's episode. If you've recently lost a loved one, I want to encourage you to stay strong, keep going, get after the life that you're meant to live. It's all they would want for you. And don't forget it's okay, okay to mourn, it's okay to sit in it with those people that you love the most, as always. We appreciate you joining the conversation and until next week, remember to actively participate in life on your terms, thank you.
