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Earth Day!

Written by Kelsey Kuykendall

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Posted on April 29 2023

"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." – Henry Ford

It is finally here! Welcome to the Earth Day edition of “A Year of Trash”! Yes, I know Earth Day was last weekend, but I wanted to dedicate this post to Earth Day and the amazing time that we had with our Ocean Springs Sea Fans.

Before we get into what went on this Earth Day, let’s get just a small bit of history. The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970. By 1990, Earth Day had become a global event. This past year more than a billion people around the world celebrated Earth Day in a variety of ways, but at least 32 very special people spent their day cleaning up Front Beach. There were several groups celebrating Earth Day in Ocean Springs with tents full of informative brochures, fun stickers and coloring pages, and resources on how you can become more eco-friendly every day. One of our favorite groups, the Mississippi Coastal Cleanup, hosted a beach clean up event earlier in the morning in Biloxi, MS.

After months of planning, our day started with launching a new collection of leggings (yes, finally with pockets!), and t-shirts in the online store. Go have a look, I am a really big fan of the Tidal leggings. The rest of the morning was filled with prep, set up, and excitement for the afternoon. The Sea Fans Clean-Up Crew started their clean up at 2pm on Front Beach. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the beach was packed with sun bathers, people walking their dogs, and families spending the day together. With the help of the Marine and Estuarine Graduate Student Association (MEGSA), we were able to meet over 30 volunteers who collected a total of 55 pounds of trash! THANK YOU to everyone who attended the event. We had volunteers of all ages; it was so fun watching the little ones excited to make the beach a better place. While our volunteers were out and about collecting trash, we had Sand Castle University building “Fiddles” the fiddler crab out of sand! Please, do your eyes a favor and go check Sand Castle University out on Instagram. Janel is one of the most talented people I have ever met, and her work is nothing short of extraordinary! Give them a like and follow while you are on their page so you can see her new works. I took a walk down to my normal places, and although there were still cigarette butts, there seemed to be less. Chris was able to recover some large pieces of siding from within the rocks under the bridge at the end of Front Beach, and I spent some time getting smaller trash and cigarette butts from the shrubby and rocky areas.

As the sun set on a perfect day, there was a drum circle and a fire dancer (not planned by us, but a happy coincidence in my opinion!). We all ate pizza and enjoyed each other’s company around a bonfire. I don’t think we could have asked for a better way to celebrate Earth Day. Cigarette butts and other recyclables were recovered from the trash. To date, the Sea Fans Clean-Up Crew has removed 63 pounds of trash in total from Front Beach and the surrounding area. I can’t wait to see how that number grows over the “year of trash”! I am already looking forward to our fall beach clean up. If you are still here, thank you for reading our Earth Day edition of A Year of Trash, see ya next month Sea Fans!

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