Well, we did it.  On Carter’s 10th birthday (Feb-22nd) we officially launched our “Say No To Plastic Bags” Coalition.

After we returned from delivering the Animal Rescue Supplies we collected to help out with the oil spill in the Gulf, we started to realize that it was not enough to just fight to help save endangered species, we also needed to look at ways we could help clean up our environment (since they basically go hand in hand).

As we educated ourselves as to some of the bigger problems, we learned that plastic is the number one pollutant item in our oceans and waterways. We also learned that over 1-million birds and over 100,000 marine animals die each year from ingesting plastic. Sea Turtles and Sea Birds often mistake plastic bags floating in the oceans and on the beaches as jellyfish and end up dying from eating them. Armed with what we have learned, we decided to launch our “Say No To Plastic Bags” Coalition.

We have purchased the movie rights to show the Bag-It Movie and we partnered with the founder of Chico Bags and now have the famous Bag Monster Costume which we use at all public engagements. We debuted the Bag Monster at the Atlanta Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation Fundraiser a few weeks ago and were recently invited as a guest to the Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church to help get their members to pledge to be Plastic Free for Lent… Great Concept 

The Atlanta debut of the Bag-It Movie was held at GA Tech Institute on Monday April 18th at 6:00PM.  We had a great turnout and everyone had a blast.

We just partnered with the ISFoundation (Ian Somerhalder, you may all know him from his role in Lost, or more recently, his role as Damon Salvatore in the TV Hit Vampire Diaries) so we can raise awareness to the problem plastic bags are causing to our environment and to endangered species.

The “Say No To Plastic Bag” Coalition offers our Partners many benefits and services. There are no annual dues or obligations. We encourage feedback from Partners to help us best help you and also gladly accept voluntary contributions to help us continue our work with all Partners.

Here is a list of the various key organizations who have also joined our “Say No To Plastic Bags” Coalition.  

Organizations are listed in accordance to when they joined.

GA Tech Surf Club

Atlanta Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation

Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church Environmental Committee, Atl...

Center for Biological Diversity

Chico Bags and the Bag Monster

Orange Halo Atlanta

ConservingNow

Cochran Mill Nature Center

ISFoundation / Defenders & Warriors 2011

US Green Building Council – Georgia Chapter

GEORGIA TECH THINK GREEN WEEK 2011

Ocean Revolution / LiveBlue

Cool People Care

Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeepers

Sierra Club / GreenHome

Earth Covenant Ministry

Fayetteville First United Methodist Church

1 BAG AT A TIME®

IDEAS (Intellectual Decisions on Environmental Awareness Solutions)

Project GreenBags

Southeast Green

Storm Water Systems, Inc.

Earthrace Conservation

TwoHandsProject

Greener Upon Thames

Turtle Island Adventures Inc.

We have also reached out to various retailers such as Whole Foods, Home Depot, Game-Stop, O’Charlies Restaurants and a few local stores as well and hope to hear back from them soon. We welcome all local organizations and retailers to join our coalition as well.

OMG founders recently met with North Georgia Annual Conference UMC Sustainability Committee. The North GA Conference represents over 900 churches, and we have the opportunity to educate and affect change in many caring communities. They presented their plans to get as many communities in GA to enact a “Say No To Plastic Bags” program. They showed the “Bag-It” movie trailer and are hopeful this meeting will lead to many more communities inviting us to come and speak about our initiative.

Carter and Olivia just returned as guest speakers at the Caring for Creation 2011 Conference at Lake Junaluska, NC. They did an amazing job and their presentation was very well received.  We will be posting more about this in the coming days.

Carter and Olivia have also been invited to attend the Sweetwater 420 Earth Day Festival and will actually be part of the Panel Discussion planed for the event.  They are starring at the Fayette County Green Day event later this month.  They will also be featured in the Georgia Tech Fashion Show during Green Week along with the Bag Monster.  Rumor has it that Captain Planet has been looking for the Bag Monster… we will see what happens when these two titans meet.

We are so proud of all the hard work Carter and Olivia are doing with their organization, and we are equally proud of all the support we have received so far with this initiative.  If you would like to have the OMG team and the Bag Monster show up at your event, please send us an email.

Best regards from the entire OMG Team