Over 200 volunteers made island clean up a success

Submitted by Great Islands Clean-Up

Co-organizers of the 7th annual Great Islands Clean-Up on San Juan Island — Lori Stokes, Jana Marks and David Dehlendorf — would like to thank our island’s approximately 260 volunteers who participated this year, helping to make San Juan Island “litter-free by the sea.” Over 100 of these litter-picker-uppers cleaned our beaches and the rest cleaned our roadsides. A total of about 2,340 pounds of litter was collected.

Many groups provided enthusiastic volunteers: Bailer Hill Construction, Cub Scouts, Friday Harbor Labs, Island Air, Islanders Bank, Kiwanis, League of Women Voters, Leo’s Club, Lions, Mitchell Pt. Litter Ladies and Gents, Mt. Dallas Volunteer Group, Paideia School, Ravenhill Construction, Rotary, Safe Harbor Insurance, San Juan County Land Bank, Soroptimists, Spring Street International School, Stillpoint School, Trash Masters and Washington State Ferries. These groups were supplemented by the efforts of numerous other volunteers who picked up litter near their homes or businesses, as well as by the state’s Ecology Youth Corps.

A huge thank you goes to Pete Moe of Orcas, Nikyta Palmisani and Nick Teague of Lopez and Stephanie Buffum-Field of Shaw, who organized parallel clean-up events on their islands. Orcas, Lopez and Shaw had a combined total of 210 participants who collected over 4,300 pounds of litter! Thanks also to Danielle Wheeler, who did an awesome job with online publicity. A special shout-out goes to San Juan Sanitation for picking up and disposing of many of the collected bags of litter, as well as to Mark Herrenkohl of SJC Public Works, who helped coordinate the islands-wide event and supplied grabbers, gloves, vests and bags to participants on San Juan.