Oh, the Things You'll Find...

Last weekend, my friend Jen and I participated in the Barefoot Wine Beach Rescue Project. I first heard of the project from the Surfrider Foundation, of which I'm a member.

Particpating in a beach clean-up was on my list of things to do this year so this was the perfect opportunity!

The clean-up was being done on Rockaway Beach. We'd never been to Rockaway Beach so that in itself was going to be an adventure. It's a very nice beach with a lot of surfers, kids and picnics. And when I say picnics...these people know how to put out a spread! Fried chicken, chips, soda...you name it. A recipe for lots of trash. We had our work cut out for us!

As soon as Barefoot and Surfrider set up their tent, we were in line to get our trash bags and gloves.

They sent each of us in a different direction. Jen and I were to go south and concentrate under the pier.

We moved slowly along the pier picking up little things here and there. Mostly cigarette butts and small pieces of styrofoam. Our bag was surprisingly...empty! This was a good and bad sign.

The good sign was that people were actually cleaning up their trash. Much different than my past few beach experiences.

The bad sign was that there was so much little stuff! All those little things can end up being eaten by fish and seagulls and in turn make them sick or even kill them.

We were starting to get a little nervous because our bag was so empty. It looked as if we hadn't been doing anything!

Then, we started finding some things that were...interesting. We uncovered some sort of, uh, love nest. It was complete with a comforter, food, water and a radio. Jen found women's panties stuck up into the boardwalk and I found men's boxers buried partly in the sand. We didn't go near them.

As we reached our turnaround point, we knew that we had to change our plan. We could not go back to the table with a half-empty trash bag. We moved closer to the water and asked people if we could take their trash. Some were appreciative while others thought we were trying to throw away their sand toys (I assured them we had no interest). And some even thanked us for our hard work.

We made our way back to the table and as it turned out, we had the biggest bag! We were very excited. As we joined the others who volunteered that day, I felt elated. Our 10 or so trash bags that sat together on the beach were proof that there are people out there who are willing to make a difference.

Fast forward to the other day when I was at the beach and something scary was floating in the water. Everyone stared but no one did anything. Then a woman reached in and pulled out a plastic bag and carred it to the trash. I smiled.



Photo: Jen takes the gloves off after our clean-up.