Community members needed for Sept 17 International Coastal Cleanup with Save The Bay

Save The Bay is recruiting volunteers to serve as site leaders for its 2016 International Coastal Cleanup. In particular, the organization is looking for site leaders who can help identify and lead cleanups at small, neighborhood beaches, fishing areas, boat launches and rights of way. “These areas don’t have city or park staff to maintain them, so littering and even dumping can be a big problem,” said July Lewis, Save The Bay’s volunteer and internship manager. The official date of the International Coastal Cleanup is Saturday, September 17, but cleanups held anytime during September or October can be counted as part of the global event. Save The Bay will hold site leader training on Tuesday, August 23 from 5:30 – 7 p.m. To become a site leader, contact Lewis at jlewis@savebay.org.
“The success of this event truly depends on community members stepping up to take the lead on cleanups,” said Lewis. “I encourage anyone who has a shoreline site they care about to step forward. It doesn’t have to be a big, public event, and it doesn’t have to take long. A family, a group of friends, even one person can do a cleanup.”
The International Coastal Cleanup, organized by the Washington, D.C.-based Ocean Conservancy and locally by Save The Bay, is the largest global volunteer effort on behalf of the ocean. Last year, beach captains led 2,199 volunteers in the cleanup of 69 miles of Rhode Island shoreline, at 85 sites throughout the state. Volunteers picked up 19,469 pounds of litter and debris, recording what they collected along the way. At the end of the cleanup, all the data from Rhode Island’s shoreline is sent to Ocean Conservancy, where it becomes part of an annual report on marine debris around the globe.
Rhode Island’s International Coastal Cleanup is supported by local business and corporations offering financial support and volunteer teams. Save The Bay thanks current sponsors - Citizens Bank, National Grid, Aquidneck Employment Services, Blum Shapiro, Clean Ocean Access, Graphic Innovations, MetLife, Providence Autobody, Roy Carpenter’s Beach, StoneRidge and ZipCar – who make the cleanup possible. For more information about the International Coastal Cleanup, visit http://www.savebay.org/icc.
 
About Save The Bay
Founded in 1970, Save The Bay works to protect and improve Narragansett Bay and its watershed through advocacy, education, and restoration efforts. It envisions a fully swimmable, fishable, healthy Narragansett Bay, accessible to everyone and globally recognized as an environmental treasure.