NBAA YoPros Give Back Through Beach Cleanup at SDC2022

April 5, 2021

Giving back to the local community has long been a key part of the NBAA Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference (SDC), and this year, the NBAA Young Professionals in Business Aviation (YoPro) group hosted a “Day of Service” beach cleanup prior to the opening of SDC2022, which runs through April 7 in San Diego, CA.

More than 30 young professionals gathered at Mission Beach in conjunction to support San Diego Coastkeeper, a non-profit protecting the region’s bays, beaches, watersheds and ocean for the people and wildlife that depend on them. Industry professionals cleaned up trash, including cigarette butts and plastic, which can’t break down in the water.

More than 91 pounds of trash was collected by the group during the Day of Service, also called Helpy Day.

Marie Diaz, marine program coordinator at San Diego Coastkeeper, said without volunteer support, trash can easily fill the beaches and threaten oceans and the environment. “Thank you to all of you who came out to support us today – we can’t keep our beaches beautiful without your volunteer efforts,” she said.

“Giving back is one of the main missions of the YoPro Council,” said Ian Lump, vice chair of the council. “Helpy Day is a way for us to set aside some time to do a service project that a local community needs and it feels great to take part.”

“We’ve coordinated volunteer activities for YoPros for the last several years,” said Erin Croup, chair of the council. “This is a part of who we are in the business aviation community. We hope we can encourage more business aviation young professionals to join us so we can keep growing our industry.”

YoPros also commented on sustainable volunteer efforts back home to celebrate Earth Month. Those efforts include supporting road cleanups, volunteering at nonprofits that promote sustainability and more.

Founded in 2014, NBAA’s YoPro program is dedicated to building relationships between emerging leaders who are working at NBAA member companies across the business aviation industry. Learn more about NBAA’s YoPro program.