Volunteers hit Indian River County beaches to remove trash - TCPalm
Photo by Sam Wolfe
SAM WOLFE/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS Nicholas Zieglowsky (left), 10, and Justin Aguilera (center) carry an old beach chair off the beach as Jessica Mercado (right) carries a broken pallet and bag of trash while volunteering at the Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup at South Beach Park on Saturday morning. Roughly 400 volunteers participated in the event in Indian River County with nearly 120 walking the dune and surf lines at the Vero Beach park.
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — About 400 volunteers scoured Indian River County beaches Saturday morning looking for cigarette butts, fishing line, bottles and other leftover debris as part of the 26th annual International Coastal Cleanup.
Saturday's cleanup was coordinated by Keep Indian River Beautiful or KIRB, and included locations from South Beach to the Sebastian Inlet State Park. It was part of a worldwide effort to clean up beaches, lakes and rivers. Last year, more than 615,000 volunteers from 114 countries and 46 states and the District of Columbia collected more than 8.7 million pounds of debris
Toting yellow trash bags and tally sheets, both adults and children gathered at multiple sites to pick up any debris that had washed up along the shoreline.
"Each of the kids collected a bag," said Debbie Henderson, who brought 12 students and 10 adults from the Glendale Christian School to Jaycee Beach on Highway A1A in Vero Beach. "The most unusual items we picked up were a hair clipper, some toothbrushes, some baby shoes and part of an air conditioner. We were just amazed by what we found."
At South Beach Park in Vero Beach, teams from TD Bank branches in Vero Beach and Sebastian, the Exchange Club of Treasure Coast and Indian River Taekwondo had crews walking both north and south along the coastline.
Kim Prado from TD Bank distributed plastic gloves and trash bags before sending out her army of almost 120 volunteers.
"Are you guys ready?" Prado asked. "Make sure you get all of your supplies before you head off, and go your distance first before you pick up any trash. Remember, it could be a long way back."
Jeff Langlois, owner of Indian River Taekwondo, said his students do several community service events each year but he thought that the beach cleanup was an important activity.
"I thought it would be a good way to teach kids some environmental awareness," Langlois said. "When I mentioned it to the kids, everybody thought it was a great idea and wanted to help."
Jennifer and Thom Chester from Sebastian brought their children Emily, 9, and Adam, 7, to the cleanup at South Beach Park.
"We wanted to show the kids how important it is to do something good for the environment," said Jennifer Chester. "It's also an activity that we can do as a family. This is our first time doing something like this and we're excited about it."
18 Sep, 2011--
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