TREASURE ISLAND, Fla. — A small St. Petersburg business is leading the effort to cleanup Treasure Island Beach on Saturday following Fourth of July celebrations.
The Beach Responsibly Project, a nonprofit organization, started as an offshoot of Chris McCormick’s beach lifestyle business — The Sandbar Clothing Company, headquartered in downtown, St. Pete.
McCormick and his girlfriend Shannon Estes-Larkin, who helps run the nonprofit, live on Treasure Island and have made it their mission to keep the beach clean. They said more volunteers are needed to help cleanup the beach.
“Two days after the Fourth of July, it’s usually a pretty trashy day,” said McCormick.
The Beach Responsibly Project cleanup effort will get underway at 8 a.m. The meeting spot is at the Treasure Island public parking on 104th Avenue and Gulf Boulevard.
“I don’t think it’s anything that people do on purpose, but things get left behind,” said McCormick.
They have found anything from towels to typical trash, and even beach toys.
However, not everything that gets collected ends up in a dumpster.
“We separate anything that needs to be separated,” McCormick said.
“Recyclables from stuff that can actually be disposed of and then kind of go from there,” Estes-Larkin said.
They hope the event gets more people involved in future beach cleanups.
“I know it’s like a very popular spot for not only visitors but for our own communities too,” said Estes-Larkin. “So, it’s really important to keep our beaches clean and to just make sure that we’re doing our part to be a part of that.”
McCormick said if the event is a success, they would like to expand into other locations to do beach cleanups.
As the saying goes, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.
For McCormick and Estes-Larkin, they just like keeping Treasure Island clean.