Gloved and masked supporters of Coastal Connections and the Environmental Learning Center gathered on a recent Saturday morning for a Coastal Cleanup at Riverside Park, filling up their buckets with the garbage left behind by careless people. Earlier planned cleanups at Humiston Park and the ELC had been canceled due to the pandemic.
“Instead we decided to join forces during the reopening of everything and come out to start picking up litter at this beautiful spot at Riverside Park,” said Kendra Cope, Coastal Connections founder and president.
“We are excited to be partnering with Coastal Connections. Our missions are very much aligned,” said Barbara Schlitt Ford, ELC executive director. “We’re all about the health of the environment and how that’s connected to human health. Together we’re better.”
Complying with social distancing, people spread in the park and along the waterfront from the Live Like Cole fishing pier to Memorial Island harvest more than 90 pounds of trash – plenty of cigarette butts and cigar tips, plastic bags and bottles, soda cans, straws, food wrappers and even several boat cushions.
On the beaches, Cope said their sea turtle surveyors are picking up about 40 celebratory balloons a day; the week before the cleanup, more than 200 had washed ashore.
“We’ve seen a lot of single-use plastic straws and single-use plastic items pop up because of the current situation,” said Cope. “All the restaurants are using more of those single-use items, and so we are seeing those around our beach and park areas.”
“Other people create the mess, but if someone else doesn’t clean it up, it doesn’t go away,” said Coastal Connections board member Sherri Davis. “It’s important. Every single wildlife creature is affected by plastics, micro-plastics and the trash that’s out here. Cigarette butts are another problem; we have to pick them up because other people throw them down. If we don’t clean it up then all of our wildlife suffers and even our tourism takes a hit.”
For more information, visit coastalconnections.org or discoverelc.org.
Photos by: Brenda Ahearn
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- Kendra Cope, president and founder of Coastal Connections, left, and Barbara Schlitt Ford, executive director of the Environmental Learning Center at the joint cleanup of the Riverside Park area on Saturday, May16, in Vero Beach. Participants were asked to wear masks and observe social distancing as they collected trash keeping records which will be added to a national database. Photo: Brenda Ahearn
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- Sherri Davis, vice president of Coastal Connections searches for trash along the Indian River on Saturday morning, May 16. The cleanup effort was a joint project for Coastal Connections and the Environmental Learning Center. Photo: Brenda Ahearn
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- Volunteers search for trash along the Indian River on Saturday morning, May 16. The cleanup effort was a joint project for Coastal Connections and the Environmental Learning Center. Photo: Brenda Ahearn
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- Volunteers search for trash in the area of Riverside Park on Saturday morning, May 16. The cleanup effort was a joint project for Coastal Connections and the Environmental Learning Center. Photo: Brenda Ahearn
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- Amanda Byford of Vero Beach brings trash to Anthony Rust of Coastal Connections for recording before being weighed on Saturday, May 16. The cleanup effort was a joint project for Coastal Connections and the Environmental Learning Center. Photo: Brenda Ahearn
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- Anthony Rust of Coastal Connections, left, and Bryce Byford, 15, of Vero Beach, pick up trash in the area of Riverside Park on Saturday, May 16, in Vero Beach. In the background are Tegan Byford, 17, center, and their mother Amanda. The cleanup effort was a joint project for Coastal Connections and the Environmental Learning Center. Photo: Brenda Ahearn
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- Jonathan Derby, 15, a member of Boy Scout Troop 505 of Sebastian, takes part in a cleanup of the Riverside Park area on Saturday morning, May 16, in Vero Beach. The cleanup, which counts as volunteer hours for Derby, was a joint project for Coastal Connections and the Environmental Learning Center. Photo: Brenda Ahearn
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- Beth Derby, of Vero Beach, holds a bucket as she and her son Jonathan collect trash in the area of Riverside Park on Saturday, May 16. The cleanup effort was a joint project for Coastal Connections and the Environmental Learning Center. Photo: Brenda Ahearn
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- Bobbie Register, of Vero Beach, helps her two-year-old granddaughter Ariah, put on rubber gloves for the cleanup in the area of Riverside Park area on Saturday morning, May 16, in Vero Beach. The cleanup, which counts as volunteer hours for Derby, was a joint project for Coastal Connections and the Environmental Learning Center. Photo: Brenda Ahearn
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- Bobbie Register, of Vero Beach, helps her two-year-old granddaughter Ariah, put on rubber gloves for the cleanup in the area of Riverside Park area on Saturday morning, May 16, in Vero Beach. The cleanup, which counts as volunteer hours for Derby, was a joint project for Coastal Connections and the Environmental Learning Center. Photo: Brenda Ahearn
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- White work gloves laid out for volunteers at the Coastal Connections and Environmental Learning Center joint cleanup of the Riverside Park area on Saturday morning, May 16. Photo: Brenda Ahearn
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- Volunteers gather for the Coastal Connections and Environmental Learning Center joint cleanup of the Riverside Park area on Saturday morning, May 16. Records were kept of the type and weight of trash collected to be added to a national database. Photo: Brenda Ahearn
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- A Coastal Connections volunteer helps out at the joint Coastal Connections and the Environmental Learning Center cleanup on Saturday morning, May 16, around the Riverside Park area of Vero Beach. Photo: Brenda Ahearn
