Grass roots organizers spark huge support for July 5 beach cleanup

Each summer the South Beach attracts folks by the hundreds to it’s beautiful coastline for any number of warm weather, beach going activities from camping to kite flying. Independence Day weekend, however, is favored by most as one of most enjoyable of times of the year at the beach. Where folks come from far and wide for a weekend of food, fireworks, and fun.

This year marked the third annual July 5 fireworks debris beach clean up for the South Beach. Last year’s hope to extend the effort south to Grayland, came to fruition this year with the great support of Grayland Residents Joseph Stacey and Elizabeth Alpaugh.

In years prior, the cleanup has been centralized at Westhaven State Park covering Half Moon Bay and the beaches nearest to the Jetty. This area alone has accounted for nearly a ton of post fourth debris in previous years, consisting of spent fireworks and your usual picnic and bonfire party trash. Each year Grayland area beaches are burdened with substantially more outfall and it has usually been local individuals and families who set out on July 5th with personal resources to take on the near insurmountable task of cleaning up their beaches. With nearly 15 miles of beaches for folks to utilize for their fireworks festivities this alone is the primary reason for so much more debris come July 5.

This year Joe and Elizabeth decided to step in along with other concerned Grayland residents to try and coordinate a similar clean up effort to what volunteers in Westport have been doing in previous years. By working closely with Westport cleanup coordinators they were able to pool resources and spread the word more broadly and with that successful in organizing a great group for a Grayland clean up effort. One set back in early planning was that due to budget cuts at Washington State Parks, cleanup crew were told Parks would not be able to provide pick up or disposal of debris as in year’s past. With that LeMay Enterprises was contacted by Joe and they graciously donated a large dumpster at the Grayland Beach approach, which became the central disposal site for all debris collected. A fantastic contribution! Parks was able to donate trash bags and offer free parking passes for all volunteers at Westhaven State Park with the help of Ranger Brad Staab.

 
This year’s coast wide clean up effort included a more proactive approach for achieving clean post fourth beaches. As opposed to just showing up to the aftermath on July 5 and cleaning up from all the partying, folks like Joe and Elizabeth set out to spread the word the day before the clean up and also passed out trash bags to beach goers. “Biz and I covered several miles of beach while people were setting up on the 4th, handing out bags and encouraging cleanup.” Joe said. “We were generally encouraged by the general sense of people wanting to do the right thing attitude. A number of people saw the flyers. Several Boy Scouts saw them and participated.”

This year’s clean up effort was a fantastic success thanks to the wonderful local enthusiasm and true grass roots organization. In all there were around 25-30 people who volunteered their time in the Grayland area and 15 at Westhaven. This years cleanup involved an impressive, 6 times the number of volunteers.

Special thanks to all those who turned out for this very notable local effort including Joe Stacey and Elizabeth Alpaugh of Grayland for their great coordination, Heidi Happonen and Ocean Companies who sponsored a BBQ at Westhaven for hungry volunteers and produced a pre-cleanup press release, LeMay for the debris disposal, and to Brady Engvall, R.D. Grunbaum, and Linda Orgel for their fantastic support of this and all previous year’s cleanups. For more information on local cleanups efforts visit http://www.coastsavers.org/ or http://surfriderwashingtonoutercoast.blogspot.com/.