Beach Cleanup

A great way to raise money during the summer is with a beach cleanup day. When the weather is at its hottest, people spend a lot more time at the beach. The thing is, people don't go to the beach with just a towel and a pair of sunglasses. They use up bottles of sunscreen. They take food that comes in plastic wrap, bags, or paper. They bring magazines and paperback books. Kids bring cheap plastic toys. Whether intentionally or not, a lot of this stuff ends up staying on the beach as trash. Beach goers think to bring a bottle of water, but not a plastic bag to collect their garbage, so they leave it there, perhaps buried in the sand. And some people who smoke use the beach sand as a big ashtray. Walk along the beach on any given summer day, and you'll find a lot of things people have left behind. So why not make it an opportunity to raise money, and help the environment at the same time? Circulate through your neighborhood and community, and ask for pledges for every quarter mile of beach cleaned up. Or, donors can pledge for the amount of time spent cleaning up, say, per half-hour or per hour. Get a large group of volunteers together, and have plenty of large trash bags on hand. It works best if the entire group lines up from the water to as far inland as you can cover with the number of volunteers you have. Everyone slowly walks the beach, picking up any bits of trash they find along the way. Be sure to provide your volunteers with gloves, too, to keep everything as sanitary as possible. Another small group of volunteers can follow along, collecting the trash bags as they fill up, and providing empty ones. It will help to have a large truck, or a few small ones to collect all the bags of trash, and take them to the nearest landfill. You can make even more money for your cause if you separate the trash from the recyclables as you go. Some recycling facilities will pay for collected plastic bottles or aluminum cans. Even if you don't get paid for recyclables, it's still just an environmentally friendly thing to do. The best time of day to do this is early evening when it's still light out, but it's cooler, and there aren't as many people on the beach. Don't forget to provide everyone with bottled water to keep them cool while they work—and remember not to throw the bottles on the beach.