Dr. S. Deacon Ritterbush, also known as “Dr. Beachcomb"

MEDIA RELEASE

Eco-educator and award-winning author Dr. S. Deacon Ritterbush, also known as “Dr. Beachcomb,” will be the featured speaker at the next Ohana Night at the Energy Lab, presented by Hawaii Preparatory Academy at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 9.

The event is free and open to the public.

Ritterbush, one of the world’s leading beachcombing experts, will present Connecting to Nature Through Beachcombing. She will discuss the relationship of beachcombing to “willing stewardship” through beachcombing’s ability to serve as a portal into shoreline conservation issues and the science and history of a specific region.

Ritterbush will share information on fascinating beach treasures, offer tips and techniques to make family beachcombing expeditions more fruitful, and discuss shorelines that “have stories to tell” from the Caribbean and Bay of Fundy to the Big Island.

Ritterbush’s presentation will be followed by a book signing and artifact identification session. Participants are encouraged to bring sea treasures for Dr. Beachcomb to identify. Families also can create their own “beach sushi” fridge magnets.

Ritterbush, president of the Beachcomb Alliance International and founder and chair of the annual International Beachcoming Conference, lectures widely on topics ranging from beach tracking, sea glass and pottery sources, and shipwreck treasure, to shoreline and ocean conservation issues and the “plastics problem.”

She is the author of the award-winning book, A Beachcomber’s Odyssey, Vol. 1: Treasures from a Collected Past, which received the gold medal for 2009 “Books for Better Living.”

A native of Maryland, Ritterbush also is a sustainable development strategist and island specialist who has worked in Hawaii and the South Pacific region for nearly three decades. Formerly a research associate at the East-West Center’s Pacific Islands Development Program, she recently served as the strategist and coordinator for the 2011 Kava Bowl Ocean Summit in Honolulu and currently is the East Coast strategist for the Hokulea Worldwide Voyage.

Ohana Night at the Energy Lab, which runs from 6 to 8 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month, provides hands-on learning opportunities for families in the areas of energy and water conservation, energy generation, water clarification, zero waste, food sovereignty, and green chemistry.

This is the final Ohana Night for the 2011-2012 school year. The program will resume in August.

For more information, contact Koh Ming Wei at 881-4266 or mwkoh@hpa.edu.