THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 12, 1994 TAG: 9406120066
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PATRICK K. LACKEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940612 LENGTH: Medium
In marshy woods behind picture-perfect Beach Garden Park, half a mile in from the ocean, they gathered four large piles of trash. They found commodes, televisions, bed frames, grills, mattresses, bicycles, strollers, grocery carts, tires, auto parts, a swing set, part of a water pump, hundreds of empty wine bottles and even a kitchen sink.
{REST} Anything humans discarded, more than 5,000 volunteers found Saturday during the 6th annual Clean the Bay Day.
``The preliminary figures, unfortunately, look very, very good,'' said Robert K. Dean, the Clean the Bay Day founder and chairman, ``because it looks like we'll exceed last year in just about everything.''
The total tons of trash actually were down this year, from 121 to about 100, mainly because this year's cleanup, from 9 a.m. to noon, came at high tide. Last year, more shoreline was exposed.
The number of items is expected to be up, however, and there were 700 more volunteers than ever before.
Above all, volunteers found cigarette butts - tens of thousands of them - and large numbers of syringes, condoms and plastic tampon applicators.
As volunteers scoured 203 miles of coastline, they were cooled by clouds and freshened by a breeze. The rain held off.
``Mother Nature looks after this event,'' said Julie McCollum of Virginia Beach, one of the original Clean the Bay Inc. members. It has never rained during the event, she said.
Clean the Bay Day, an event made up entirely of volunteers, has two main objectives: to clean harmful and unsightly trash and debris from waterways, and to create awareness of the trash problem. Lists are kept of everything picked up, so pollution types and sources can be identified.
On Clean the Bay Day, you might hear a passing volunteer mutter, ``Two hundred fifty-six, two hundred fifty-seven, or wait, did I count that butt twice.''
Early Saturday morning behind Duck-In Seafood Restaurant by the Lynnhaven Inlet, Navy Capt. Robert Cloyes was taking a can-do approach to collecting cigarette butts.
``We are going to pick up a million butts,'' he said, ``because they are out there; they trash the beach.''
He's commander of the Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station headquarters at Norfolk Naval Station, which provided 42 volunteers this year, including civilian employees.
On Saturday, the volunteers handed out some 7,200 portable ashtrays to smokers.
Years of environmental-education programs appear to be bearing fruit. Chuck Bennett, 55, of Virginia Beach, has walked the Bay beach on the east side of Lynnhaven Inlet during all six Clean the Bay Days.
``It's cleaner than it's ever been,'' he said Saturday.
This year, for the first time, the Lower James River Association cleaned both shores of that river from Hopewell to Richmond, and volunteers worked in the Bennetts Creek area in Suffolk.
Many adult volunteers brought along children. Ellen Renn, 32, of Virginia Beach, was picking up trash with her 12-year-old, Karl.
``I think my son's generation isn't going to have a choice,'' she said. ``They are going to have to do things like this. I think they need an example.''
``If everyone cleaned up a little bit,'' said Elizabeth Vonasek, 34, of Portsmouth, a five-time volunteer, ``we wouldn't have a problem in a very short time.''
{KEYWORDS} CLEAN THE BAY DAY
by CNB