FLORENCE, Ore. — It’s not just those who live on the coast who are taking part in cleaning up local beaches. Some people traveling through Florence Saturday picked up a bag and gloves to clean up trash along the coast.
Some volunteers make it a point to clean up the coast. “Well we like to do it every chance we get. So this is the second time we’ve gotten to do it,” said Cheryl Belleau.
While others just happened to stumble upon the clean up and decided to help. “By chance we came to do our morning walk on the beach and they asked us to volunteer to pick up trash and we’re happy to do so,” said Brett McDonald.
The Carl G. Washburne State Park is just one of 45 sites along the coast getting a little TLC during the annual SOLVE Spring Oregon Beach Cleanup. It’s a cleanup that attracts people to the coast for many different reasons. “We mainly come out here for the love of birds. So we spent a lot of time picking up very small pieces of plastic and Styrofoam,” said Belleau. ”
“I just think it’s a great idea to keep the beaches clean,” said JoAnne Arnold.
Saturday, their reasons were one in the same. Picking up any garbage they could find to keep trash out of the ocean. “I’m just concentrating on little plastic things because there are so many people they can pick up the bigger stuff, but I’m finding little pieces of glass and things,” said Arnold.
“They do a good job and actually we found very little debris on the beach anyway,” said McDonald.
While the sun beat down on the volunteers, they picked up each piece of trash in sight with a smile. “Enjoying Oregon and we’re going to come back again,” said McDonoald
“It’s a great project. People should join us,” said Arnold.