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Volunteers clean up during beach-sweep day Saturday

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Chris Lee and two of his H.E. McCracken Middle School classmates recently were given an assignment in their eighth-grade English class to complete a community service project.

The friends decided to take part in the Beach Sweep/River Sweep litter cleanup along the banks of the May River in Bluffton.

The cleanup was part of the annual beach sweep program sponsored by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium. The program is in its 20th year. It is the Palmetto State's largest one-day, volunteer, cleanup program.

Chris, 13, originally thought the cleanup would feel like a chore.

"It turned out to be kind of interesting," he said Saturday afternoon after the trash already had been brought to the dump. "It was pretty fun. We made Oyster Factory Park more presentable for tourists and residents."

Volunteers in Bluffton and on Hilton Head and Daufuskie islands collected hundreds of pounds of trash as part of Saturday's effort.

Pat Collett, who coordinated the cleanup effort at Burke's Beach on Hilton Head, thought the event might wrap up quickly when she arrived early Saturday morning.

Collett's husband had surveyed the beach before volunteers arrived. He didn't see too much trash.

"We thought it was going to be boring," she said.

That first impression turned out to be false.

For four hours, about 25 volunteers covered the beach from the Westin to Singleton Beach.

They collected cigarette butts, bottles and bottle caps, foam coolers, lumber, plastic beach toys, flip-flops and clothing, among other things.

Kim Jones, natural resources manager for the town of Bluffton, coordinated the effort Chris and his friends took part in.

Under her direction, about 40 volunteers, which included two Boy Scout troops and boaters who collected floating trash, covered the area from the May River to Bridge Street.

"Trash in (Oyster Factory Park) would eventually make its way down to the river," Jones said.

She said the fact that volunteers didn't collect as much trash as last year is a good sign.

"It may mean the cleanups are making a difference ... or people are dumping less," she said.

Volunteers in each cleanup recorded the amount and types of trash they collected. That data will be sent to Ocean Conservancy, a national non-profit environmental group, which tallies collection data to target future educational programs, Jones said.

In the meantime, Chris and his friends will give their own educational presentation in their English class.

"I'd do it again next year, even if it's not for school," he said.

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