This week, our team went out to Catalina Island for the first time to work with local students.
It was one of those days where you can feel why this work matters, not just in theory, but in a very real, human way. Being on the island, working with students who actually live there, we felt really honored to be there with them. We weren’t visiting as tourists like locals are used to, but as a locals ourselves, coming from Long Beach just across the water.
At one point, I told the students, “When you look out across the channel, you’re looking at my home. I look out at your island every day.”
One of the girls excitedly said, “Sometimes I can see your lights!!”
That stuck with me. It gave me a sense of connection I had never felt before.
From Long Beach, Catalina feels far. Some days it looks big, almost like a mountain sitting out in the water. Other days it looks really small, and sometimes we can’t see it at all. It’s its own place.
But when you’re there, on the ground, working with the people who live there, it’s not separate at all. In fact, it felt very familiar. We were finding similar shells, similar rocks, and seeing the same kinds of wildlife. We share the same weather, the same water temperature. And even though they only have one school, we share the same school district.
Students from Avalon and students from Long Beach are part of one system, experienced from two sides.
At Algalita, we talk a lot about Place to Planet. It starts with connecting to your local place, and from there, your understanding expands outward to the larger systems we’re all part of.
Being on Catalina made me realize there’s another layer to that.
Before you expand outward, you can also look across.
Two places that feel far apart, but are actually connected. The same water, the same system, just experienced differently.
That’s what this felt like.
Place to Place.
And this was just the beginning for us.
We’re planning to bring our students out to the island this summer, and we’re hoping to create more opportunities for students from both places to spend time together.
That moment, “Sometimes I can see your lights,” is going to stay with me.
It’s a reminder that we are all connected. Place to Place, and Place to Planet.
And that’s why this work matters so much to us. At the core of it all is connection. The ability to connect to place, and to each other. That’s what we’re here to nurture at Algalita.
