By CATY LAFITTE

Earth Day is something many people in Santa Barbara annually celebrate, gathering in Alameda Park, enjoying homegrown food, listening to local artists, or checking out the Laguna booth at the Earth Day Festival.
But, many people don’t know that Earth Day began in part because of the tragic Santa Barbara Channel oil spill in 1969.
The oil spill which stemmed from a ruptured Union Oil Company platform six miles off of the coast of Summerland polluted 100 miles of coastline, killed nearly 4,000 seabirds, and took more than a year to fully clean up.
The disaster along the Santa Barbara coast drew attention to the problems with off shore drilling for oil, and began a new environmentalist movement that later became Earth Day, which is celebrated on April 22 every year.
Mr. Barry Cappello, father of Vincent Cappello ’21 and Dominic Cappello ‘19, and one of the nation’s leading trial lawyers, was the chief litigator in the trial against Union Oil, Mobil, Gulf and Texaco after the oil spill.
Mr. Cappello spoke to students and faculty during the Earth Day Assembly on April 17.
He highlighted the major harmful effects of oil drilling on platforms in the ocean, and made suggestions for what students can do on their part to help the environment in Santa Barbara.
“I was fascinated by the presentation because I never knew how strong of an impact the oil companies had on Santa Barbara. I learned a lot of Santa Barbara history that I did not know before,” senior Quentin Tedesco said.
The assembly, attended by both Middle and Upper School students, was a milestone of sorts—the sophomore class watched the presentation from the Isham Library & Academic Research Center, marking the first live stream to the flat- screen televisions in the library.
Assembly coordinator Ms. Trish McHale worked with Network Administrator Mr. Ladislav Laza to make the live stream possible.
“I think it was really cool that we were able to steam the video. The audio was really clear so we could easily hear the presentation,” sophomore Jacqueline Berci said.