Reserve Saturday morning, January 23rd, to join us for the all-volunteer community beach cleanup at 9:30 AM. Every major beach approach will have a cleanup coordinator just waiting to greet and direct walk-on volunteers. Adopt-a-beach groups will head for their assigned sections  and work wonders within a few hours. This is the yearly cleanup that produces the most “off shore” garbage that washes in with our winter storms. Make sure you have good gloves and dress for the weather, which is pretty darn unpredictable at the end of January. Some cleaners even carry small shovels with them as we also see so much semi-buried debris from our winter winds. This is also the only cleanup each year when we can get up to Leadbetter Wildlife Reserve to clean. Since it is a once-a-year effort, extra volunteers are needed to tackle the year’s accumulation in the sands there.

Linda Bierma’s been orchestrating our truck brigade (kudos to the crew!) and those who have participated in the past will hear from her soon.  If you haven’t been one of the “usual trucks” and would like to collect bags off the beach this January, please email Linda at bierma@willapabay.org. 

The HAM radio operators are working with us again (yeah!) to help us identify areas of need and get cleaners to those areas quickly.  This level of coordination has helped us be able to do a “clean sweep” of the beach each cleanup.  Our HAM connection is Bob Cline; you can email him at rcline@centurytel.net for more information. 

Friday night, January 22nd, we will have a special treat for our potluck dinner guests. Dinner will start at 5 PM and be followed by a special presentation at 5:45 by (we are still nailing down the details – but be assured, it’ll be interesting!).   Volunteers gather at 4:30ish and roll bags up and create bags of bags for each of the beach approaches.  Bring a potluck dish and hope to see you there!

LOCATION CHANGE FOR SOUP FEED!  Get warmed up after the cold cleanup adventure on that Saturday with some hot soup at the Peninsula Baptist Church.  This is just north of Klipsan on the east side of the road, large blue building – we’ll have a sign on the road to guide the way. Soup and accompaniments will be served from 11:30 to 1 ish.

Dumpsters and Dump Fees Sponsorship Needed
With our government budgets tightening, we just received an email from Pacific County that they can no longer fund our bags or the Ocean Park dumpster – that’s about $2000 a year in dump (tipping) fees.  Our annual costs, excluding the City of Long Beach (which they thankfully cover) is apx $8200.  State Parks helps where they can too – but everyone’s budget continues to tighten!  We do have a couple of potential new sources but are unsure.  The July 5th cleanup is up in the air at this point.  Do you know of an organization that would sponsor a dumpster or two each year (cost is apx $600 per dumpster per cleanup)  or buy garbage bags?  If so, Peninsula Sanitation has an account for us that has some funds in it (thanks to Blackwood Beach, Dean & Angela Marsh and 42nd Street  Cafe ).  Remember, the Gang can find helping hands and community organizations and businesses provide many supplies and facilities, but dump fee provision is THE critical lifeline to sustaining this great volunteer effort in our coastal community!  Thank you for any effort you can contribute to our backup plan.

Adopt-a-Beach Groups Needed
We always seem to have some ‘empty’ sections of beach that have not been adopted by a group , especially in January when we have an extra 6 miles or so to clean.   Maybe a section is calling your name. If you and your family, or neighborhood or business organization, community group, church group or social group have an interest in committing to cleaning a short section (generally 1/2 mile) during three beach cleanups per year, please contact Shelly at shelly@ourbeach.org to discuss it.  It is fun to work together in community service  -  and great exercise.
 
Thank you,  everyone,  and we’ll see you on the beach!
 
 P.S. A note to parents of teenagers looking for “community service” credit at their high school. This beach cleanup is a good way for these high school students to get some community service credit at school. If they bring the community service note with them, beach approach coordinators will be happy to sign the note after the student has participated in the beach cleanup. They may even be surprised at how much garbage sits on our beach – a first-hand way to learn about littering impacts.

Contact the Grass Roots Garbage Gang at www.ourbeach.org.