Jack O’Neill believed every child should have the chance to experience the ocean. Land-use attorney Monica Hammer, who sits on the planning commission for the City of Santa Cruz and the board of O’Neill Sea Odyssey, learned about the ocean’s power from her Danish father, an avid sailor. Once we form a relationship with the natural world, we have a reason to care for it, she writes. Today, a lack of transportation – about $950 in school bus fare – is keeping some classes of local children from making that connection, and from discovering an ocean that is waiting less than an hour away. O’Neill hopes to change that by providing up to 85% of the transportation costs.
