One image of a pelican covered in crude oil in the aftermath of the Gulf oil disaster inspired local resident Michele Iemolo to help take action and to help motivate the Hollywood community to make environmental changes.
Iemolo, a movement therapist and special needs educator, organized Operation Clean Ocean, an effort to raise awareness to the recent Gulf disaster through meditation, dance and song. She and 150 other locals gathered on North Beach in Hollywood last month to learn more about the disaster and ways to move toward more sustainable ways of living and to envision a clean ocean.
Gaining inspiration from Masaru Emoto, a Japanese doctor of alternative medicine who believes that water memorizes and carries information, the participants of Operation Clean Ocean joined hands and walked into the ocean while chanting, “I am in the ocean; the ocean is in me; I am clean; I am clear; I’m in perfect harmony,” in hopes of carrying the message across the ocean.
We hoped that the collective prayer and collective visioning for a clean ocean would help inspire people in the community to take action, she said. We really wanted to pull people together.
The event also included a beach cleanup, which Iemolo said was one way they could do their part in helping keep the environment clean.
“The oil spill was a wake-up call,” she said. “Instead of focusing on the negative, we need to focus on the
positive, and things are going to change. We need to look at this as an opportunity to move toward a sustainable way of life.”
She said all Hollywood residents could do little things – like carpooling – to help protect the environment for future generations. In addition, Iemolo said Operation Clean Ocean was an opportunity for her, and for the participants, to act as the voices of the animals who cannot speak for themselves. She said she was inspired to help raise awareness so that other people had the opportunity to do the same.
The damage caused by the oil spill has also led some residents to protest offshore drilling entirely.
The Hollywood protest, in which participants formed a line in the sand and held hands for 15 minutes, was one of hundreds of protests performed across the country supporting clean energy.
In addition, while the oil has not reached Hollywood’s beaches, in a letter to Hollywood residents, Mayor Peter Bober said the City is taking measures to prepare should the possibility become a reality.
He said that City Manager Cameron Benson and all city department directors and emergency management personnel conducted a comprehensive planning and disaster response scenario, and the session included a briefing on the oil spill by the U.S. Coast Guard. In addition, Manager Benson organized a meeting of all Broward County coastal city emergency management directors and/or city managers to discuss and coordinate planning and response for the potential effects of the oil spill.
Mayor Bober also organized a meeting that involved the mayor of each coastal city in Broward County to reinforce emergency management plans that provide specific details on how cities, the county, state and federal governments will come together to address this disaster.
And while the elected officials prepare for the potential threat, Iemolo said she will continue her efforts to raise awareness and organize events.
For more information about Iemolo’s upcoming events, visit her Operation Clean Ocean Facebook fan page, and for more information on the Gulf oil disaster, call the Oil Spill Information line at 1-888-337-3569.
