THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 23, 1994 TAG: 9409210121
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 118 lines
IF THE WATERFRONT around City Park and along Bayview Boulevard in Port Norfolk looks a little more inviting and a whole lot cleaner this week, the credit goes to a small army of volunteers who spent Saturday morning picking up more than a ton of shoreline litter.
The cleanup operation was part of the 1994 International Coastal Cleanup sponsored each September by the Center for Marine Conservation and involving 30 countries. Last year, 134,000 volunteers in the United States cleaned 4,400 miles of coastline and collected 2.8 million pounds of debris.
In Port Norfolk, 60 teens, all members of Western Branch High School's Math and Science Club, spent several hours scouring the beach along Bayview Boulevard.
Besides a hands-on lesson in ecology, they also had a test of applied mathematics when they tallied the amount and type of litter they collected.
In all, some 210 pounds of trash was collected. The Port Norfolk teens found the expected assortment of glass, styrofoam and plastic fast-food wrappings, but they also turned up coded plastic and metal industrial strapping labels, several untraceable poison labels, syringes and what they suspected was a homemade crack pipe.
``They get no extra credit for this,'' said Suzanne King, Western Branch High School earth science teacher and club sponsor. What the students did earn was a sense of satisfaction and the chance to go on additional field trips during the school year.
At City Park, about 100 adults and children, uniformed in Navy blue T-shirts and rubber gloves, and armed with litter sticks, rakes, trashbags and tally sheets, attacked two miles of riverfront.
The Telephone Pioneers of America, Tidewater Council of the Old Dominion chapter 43, sponsored the cleanup at City Park.
The Pioneers, with nearly 1 million members nationally, is a volunteer service organization made up of telecommunications industry employees and retirees. According to Pat Curvan, second vice president of the state chapter of the Pioneers, the Pioneers helped to originate the local Clean the Bay campaign six years ago and has continued to support both the Clean the Bay days and the International Coastal Cleanup.
Saturday's crew at City Park came from all over South Hampton Roads. The volunteers included Bell Atlantic employees and retirees and their families and friends; two Girl Scout troops from Churchland; and a Cub Scout troop from Virginia Beach.
Each year, the Pioneers focus on a different location for their regional cleanup.
``We try to move around and spread our efforts around,'' Bill Cameron, the Pioneers' environmental coordinator, explained.
Rita Coley, a manager's clerk with Bell Atlantic, organized this year's cleanup. A Chesapeake resident and a Cradock native, Coley selected the City Park site not only because it needed a good tidying, but also because it was big enough to accommodate the turnout of volunteers she anticipated.
Some of the volunteers were equally familiar with City Park. John Sharrett, a retired Bell Atlantic supervisor who now lives in Suffolk, grew up in Westhaven. As he speared litter, Sharrett glanced across the Elizabeth River toward his childhood home and reminisced about swims in the river with his brothers every Easter. ``It was a tradition,'' he said with a smile.
Larry Barnes, a Bell Atlantic manager and active Pioneer, spent part of the morning lugging large pieces of old pilings and chunks of wood off the beach. Barnes works in the Portsmouth/Suffolk area and occasionally enjoys a picnic lunch break at the park.
``This is something good to do for the community and it is good recreation,'' he said, wiping his muddy hands on his jeans. ``I am with some good people, here for a good cause.''
Amber Canon, a 13-year-old freshman at Wilson High, spends a lot of leisure time at the park and fretted about the growing amount of trash threatening the habitat of the wildlife she loves watching there.
Amber voiced her concern in a letter to Mayor Gloria O. Webb and, as a result, was invited to join in the cleanup effort. ``I never even knew she wrote the letter until we got a response,'' said Cindy Canon, Amber's mother. ``I am so proud of her.''
City Park came as a happy surprise to some of the other volunteers. Sharon Emory, president of the Tidewater Telephone Employees' Credit Union, lives in Virginia Beach but came out to help, bringing along her husband and daughter. ``We were shocked to see this great park,'' she said. ``Before today, we didn't realize this existed.''
As noon approached, the smell of grilling hot dogs and onions wafted across City Park and drew the volunteers back to their pavilion for lunch and a trash weigh-in.
The cleanup crew had collected 1,750 pounds of debris, mostly plastic bags, food wrappers, cigarette butts and styrofoam. The more unusual finds included a broken crab pot, a number of single shoes, underwear, a few syringes and one tire.
Robert J. Hagerty, a 50-year-old retired Bell Atlantic supervisor from Virginia Beach, retrieved the tire from the tide, but paid a price for his capture. Just as he reached for the tire, Hagerty became mired in the mud, sinking almost to his waist. He was rescued by several fast-thinking friends and a tow rope, but he lost his shoes in the maneuver.
``He has always been the one to do the impossible thing,'' Coley said. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by GARY C. KNAPP
Bob Hagerty ventured too far into the marsh at City Park and became
mired up to his hips in mud. Other volunteers at the cleanup rescued
him.[color cover photo]
More than a ton of shoreline litter was picked up by volunteers
around City Park and along Bayview Boulevard in Port Norfolk.
After the cleanup effort, participants were treated to a cookout at
City Park.
One of the volunteers found what appeared to be part of an old bomb.
The police removed it just in case. No confirmation has been made.
Photo by PHYLLIS SPEIDELL
Amber Canon, 13, a freshman at Wilson High School, volunteered her
time Saturday to help clean up the shoreline of City Park. She frets
about the growing amount of trash threatening the habitat of the
wildlife she loves watching there.
by CNB