On Saturday June 30th, 2012, The Sustany® Foundation conducted a beach clean-up at the Davis Islands Seaplane Basin as part of our 2nd quarter maintenance event in conjunction with the Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful program. Starting at 8:30am, a group of 14 people collected 12 bags of trash, mostly plastic water bottles, beer cans, and Styrofoam cups. There were a few oddities found like the back section of a lawn chair and two tire-treads.
Among our group of pickers were some University of Tampa students and several members of Emerge Tampa Bay, a leadership program of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. There were also some young ladies with us who are residents of Davis Islands and just wanted to help clean up their neighborhood.
Special thanks to a Mr. Kevin Beech (hope I got your name right), who stopped by to ask what we were doing. When he learned it was a volunteer clean-up, he showed his appreciation of our efforts by making a cash donation on the spot. That helped to offset our water hydration requirement which was substantial due to all the physical exertion in the hot morning sun under a cloudless sky.
Many thanks go to the City of Tampa Parks & Recreation Department for the use of their ‘pick-sticks’ and heavy duty trash bags. Also happy to report that the yaupon hollies planted last year in collaboration with the Raymond James Gasparilla Festival of the Arts Sustainability Committee are hanging in there, putting on new growth after TS Debby’s deluge.
Sustany® will be doing another clean up at the Davis Islands Seaplane Basin in September, so mark your calendars and join us.