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Community Corner

VIDEO: Thousands Participate in Coastal Clean-Up 2011

Armed with nothing more than their gloved hands and a grabbing tool, volunteers collected tons of trash.

On Saturday, Sept. 17, thousands of Southern California residents participated in the Coastal Clean-Up Day at over sixty locations. Not all of these people were at the beach, many were also cleaning up their favorite lake, stream or pond. Armed with nothing more than their gloved hands and a grabbing tool, volunteers collected tons of trash. This was the 22nd year the event has taken place.

Paul Working, of Catch-22, manned a booth at Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach. Working has participated in the Clean-Up for the past seven years, and looks forward to the event every year. 

"We've collected over seven tons of trash on average, each year. So far today, we've collected everything from cans and plastic bottle to a hypodermic needle," he said during the cleanup effort.

The first Coastal Clean Up was organized in Oct. 1984 by Oregonian Judie Neilson who organized 2,800 volunteers. One year later, the concept had spread down to California where the California Coastal Commission ran the event in 1985 with 2,500 participants. 
Volunteers range in age from the very young to the more mature.  Heal the Bay took over the organization of the Clean Up Days in 1990.  

Larry Moore from Fish Talk Radio with Philip Friedman Outdoors said it was a good day.

"It's just good to be out here helping," said Moore. "I'm just hoping we can do this kind of thing every weekend as opposed to every year."

For information regarding this or other clean-up events, please contact the California Coastal Commission at 1-800-5744

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