Explore Ecology Call for Volunteers or the 40th Year for Coastal Clean-Up Day

This year marks the 40th Anniversary of Coastal Clean Up Day, and the team at Explore Ecology is putting out the call for volunteers early this year to celebrate it. 

Your trusty Our Town news reporter, Joanne A Calitri, has been covering this event for years, and shares, “It is such a worthwhile and time-well-spent morning. This event at our Montecito beaches has been supported by the Laguna Blanca Schools faculty, staff, and families for many years, manning Hammond’s Beach at the end of Eucalyptus Lane, while Westmont College students, locals and families have volunteered at the Butterfly Beach shores.”

The clean-up is an all-ages event and fairly easy to do solo. Volunteers help each other muscle some pieces of debris requiring more than a pair of hands. Each beach has an assigned Team Captain who will have volunteers sign in and go over the instructions. Registration is encouraged so the captains can prepare with enough supplies, and if you do register, your name is entered to win prizes. Volunteers must bring their own protective gloves and buckets. Site captains will have the garbage bags and supplies if you forgot yours, or for those who just happen to walk by and want to help. A signed waiver is required of all volunteers, done at the cleanup site or online.

Beaches for the metro-Montecito area include Butterfly Beach, Hammond’s Beach, Summerland Lookout Park Beach, Carpinteria State Beach, Carpinteria Creeks, and Santa Claus Lane Beach. There are beaches needing help from Rincon to Guadalupe, check the 411.

411: https://exploreecology.org/coastal-cleanup day