Pitch in to clean up shoreline

News

by David Ball

Staff Writer

The biggest clean up initiative along the St. Johns River will return for the 13th time next Saturday, March 15, as about 1,000 volunteers are expected to come out for the St. Johns River Celebration and annual cleanup.

Last year, 1,040 volunteers logged 3,734 hours of trash duty along the banks of the river and collected 37,791 pounds of litter. And that doesn’t include the large debris like tires, appliances and construction material, said Vivian Harrell, event coordinator and administrator for the City’s Clean It Up, Green It Up office.

“That’s a huge impact. Almost 38,000 pounds of trash that’s not sitting there making our city look bad,” said Harrell. “We don’t know how many volunteers we’ll have until they show up and sign in, but I hope we have more and we can make a bigger impact.”

Bigger is definitely possible. In 2000, 1,027 volunteers collected 41,880 pounds of litter. Even in 2003 when the event was affected by a rain storm, 663 volunteers still came out and collected 29,520 pounds. Harrell said it’s hard to imagine that much litter returns to the river each year.

“A lot of the cleanup sites are the same each year, but we are continuing to add new sites,” she said. “We’re adding some land sites, because litter traveling from traffic and people on land can travel to the river.”

There are 22 public cleanup sites for the 2008 event (there are also several private sites organized by local groups), and each site is manned by a site captain who distributes garbage bags, gloves and “grabbers” for those who need them. Volunteers just simply show up and sign in at 8 a.m. and start picking up whatever trash they see until 11:30 a.m.

Gary Kirkland, a dual enrollment marine science teacher at Fletcher High School, has been site captain at Helen Cooper Floyd Park (formerly Little Jetties) since the cleanup began. He said he tries to get his students and the entire science department involved in the event.

“The turnout won’t be as high this year because prom is on the 14th,” he said. “But I like to see people participating and appreciating the river. It’s important now, with the over-nutrification, the green monster (algae bloom), and now they’re going to take the water out.

“It’s important to reinforce our connection to the river.”

Harrell said volunteers can clean up for 15 minutes for the full three-and-a-half hours. Afterwards, they check back with the captain and log their hours and what they collected. Then it’s off to Metropolitan Park for T-shirts and refreshments at the post-cleanup celebration from noon-2 p.m. This year will include a demonstration by helicopter pilots from the Jacksonville Mosquito Control Division and a display from the National Weather Service in Atlanta.

For more information on the event, call Clean It Up, Green It Up at 630-3420 or visit www.coj.net and search keywords “St. Johns River Celebration.”

St. Johns River Celebration 2008 cleanup sites

Downtown

• Kennedy Center, 113 Ionia St.

• St. Nicholas Shoreline, near Palmer Terrace at Call Street.

• Warren W. Schell Jr. Memorial Park, 510 W. Sixth St.

• Henry J. Klutho Park, 635 Third St.

• Confederate Park, 956 Hubbard St.

Arlington/Beaches

• Ft. Caroline National Memorial, 12713 Fort Caroline Rd. (Cleanup will be from 9-11:30 a.m.)

• Blue Cypress Park, 4012 University Blvd. N.

• Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park, 500 Wonderwood Road.