Come together for Saturday’s cleanup

If you’re of mind, body and spirit to help clean up Kauai’s beaches, you are needed this Saturday.

Sustainable Coastlines and Surfrider Foundation are hosting the best of cleanups. Not only are they willing to drive you to the places that could use some TLC, you’ll have plenty of good company and good cheer.

Before we go on, let’s cover the basics and, hopefully, you’ll be motivated to come out and pitch in for a volunteer gathering with the best of intentions.

The old saying, many hands make for light work, works here.

OK, in a nutshell, this is being billed as a cleanup on Kauai like never before. Organizers hope that “by mixing multiple locations, school buses, prize giveaways, treasure hunts, games, live music, and plastic-free meals they hope to leave you inspired and proud of your hard work volunteering to remove thousands of pounds of debris from Kauai’s eastern coastline.”

Check-in begins at 9 a.m. at Anahola Beach Park. The group plans to do some cleaning in Anahola (great for families) and a few trouble spots identified by the local experts from Surfrider Kauai. Buses leave at 9:30 a.m. from Anahola Beach Park and return at noon.

A few hours working under the sun would leave anyone in need of refreshments and entertainment and rest assured, that’s part of the plan. Food and music starts at noon and goes until 2 p.m.

So, not only are Sustainable Coastlines and Surfrider Foundation keeping your time commitment to just a few hours of not-too-hard labor, they’re going to reward you, as well, with food and fun.

But for this to work, they need you. They need your muscles and your strong back and mostly, they need your energy and enthusiasm. You can, on this day, make a difference for this island and your community. Remember to bring some gloves, a hat, shoes for such tasks, and some water can’t hurt.

Now, you might ask, is there really that much junk out there that we need to send out legions of men, women and children to collect trash? Some beaches are clean and look like they are the picture of health. Others, not so much.

All that plastic and debris that washes up on beaches eventually goes back out until we pick it up. That plastic is a danger to marine life. Fish and green sea turtles can ingest it and get caught up in it. And more dangerous are the nets out there. They can end up entangling humpback whales, even causing their death. We have all heard stories of whales with nets wrapped around them and volunteers trying to free them. Sometimes, they are successful. Sometimes, they are not. So if you see a net floating on the water or see one washed ashore, do your best to pull it far enough to land and let Surfrider know, too.

Key is, for the benefit of marine life and our benefit, too, to keep the debris off the beaches and out of the ocean. Thanks to people with groups like Sustainable Coastlines and Surfrider Foundation, that is happening. And they want your help.

If you can, please pitch in and be at Anahola Beach Park Saturday morning. There is an incentive of food and music. If you need more reasons to come out, know this: you’ll be making the very place you live better, and there’s a chance you may save some marine life.

See you there.