By Camille Yost and Johnathon Froman

With Club Rush behind us, you might have noticed many students signing up at the TIDES club stand. In its second year, the TIDES club has grown into a reputable center for community service, in great part due to the efforts of the club members and leadership.

TIDES stands for “Together in Defeating Environmental Sabotage,” a suitable moniker for the club’s purpose. Founded and led by Dana Twisk and Chloe Smit, TIDES is an organization that dedicates itself to cleaning up the environment. Twisk and Smit are the club’s president and vice president and during the creation of the TIDES club, the two asked Randy Reta, a biology teacher at Tustin High, to hold their meetings in his classroom, to which he readily agreed.

Chloe Smit explains that “the ocean is an environment to many animals and their home can be easily ruined with the trash that people leave around. This can be very harmful to these animals”.  The TIDES club exists to relieve the stress and danger presented to marine life. Such an example is the club’s monthly clean-ups of the beaches. In these clean-ups, a large number of club members are gathered on a certain beach and pick up any visible trash buried in the sand or floating in the water. Most cleanups last hours and it’ll be night by the time the crew is ready to head home.

“Of course we can’t defeat the whole issue,” Smit stated. “But we try to clean up as much as we can.” The TIDES club, in addition to its goal of cleaning up the beaches, was created to help raise awareness and fund a charity called Heal the Bay, an environmental non-profit organization that is dedicated to making the ocean waters of Southern California safe and clean. Another goal, according to Smit, is to encourage other schools to start their own TIDES clubs and do their part in preserving the environment.

The club is also “a good way to get service hours” as Reta signs off on the hours you put in at beach cleanups. If you are interested in joining, the doors to TIDES club are always open to new members. Even if you missed sign-ups during Club Rush all you have to do to join is walk in during one of their weekly meetings, which are held every Tuesday at lunch in Mr. Reta’s room— Room 5105.