A nice breeze and blue skies made for an awesome morning for Suncoast Surfrider's first beach cleanup at Upham beach Saturday. The cleanup started around 8:30am and over 35 people showed to help clean St. Pete Beach.
If you missed this cleanup another is planned for International Surfing Day this summer. You can check back for more details.
If you are interested in helping
Surfrider's Newly formed Suncoast Chapter please attend the Next meeting
Wednesday 6/6/07 @ 7:00 @ D K Buoy's on north end of Blind Pass Road,
St Pete Beach. Food & Beverage available for purchase. Discussion
topics to include our chapters primary initiatives. 9555 Blind Pass Road,
St. Pete Beach, FL 33706 • Phone 727-367-5010
Suncoast
Surfrider Foundation Beach Clean-Up!
By
Ron Henkel, Volunteer
Coordinator, Suncoast Surfrider Chapter
Well Gulfsters, we have had our first official
event! It came in the form of a beach clean up at Upham’s Beach.
The morning kind of started out in a weird way. As I woke up and proceeded
to do my emails, I managed to find a way to throw my back out!! I could
not believe it. I was having trouble just standing up! I could not be
hurt this morning. I have got to get out there and work. I thought this
was going to be a bad omen at first, but then I just told myself to think
positive.
As I arrived to the beach, the weather was most definitely cooperating.
It was a comfortable 80 degrees with a fantastic breeze kicking in. It
was 8am and a few of my fellow Surfrider members were already at the beach.
We proceeded to have some breakfast and form our battle plan. We looked
over the renourished beach with a glazed feeling. We started to think;
how much trash was really out there? The beach looked clean enough. Would
it really be worth the effort?
Finally, everyone started showing up at around 8:30 or so, and we formed
up in groups of four. With the efficiency of a gulf war battalion, we
scoured the beach for trash (well I didn’t, I had my injury as my
excuse), but the rest did! The trash that they came up with was astounding.
On a beach that is supposedly clean and a professional crew was to have
cleaned it the night before, we found a lot of trash! Over 33 of us contributed
to collecting around 100lbs of trash, give or take a pound. Some of the
more unique pieces of trash included a straw that had a male genitalia
form, a boogie board that was discarded, a chair, cups, and the most found
piece of trash, cigarette butts!
Many people contributed their time, including high school volunteers,
middle school and elementary aged students, as well as us Gulfsters! Lenny’s
Surfshop, Suncoast Surfshop and Surf Shack all contributed on this tremendous
day. They either dedicated items for prizes, or their time, or even better
both. The Seaside Grill located at Upham’s allowed us to us their
dumpster for the disposal of the trash.
Near the end of the clean-up several volunteers conducted a short feeler
survey to see how comfortable people were with the “T-Groins”
at Upham’s. The results of this initial survey will be shared at
the next meeting and possibly on the www.gulfsurfforum.com
At the end of the morning, the event was a success! We are off to a strong
start as a chapter, but like I have said before, many hands make light
work. It was true in this case as we were able to clean over a half mile
of beach in 2 hours! Congrats to everyone and we are certainly looking
forward to our next event.
