By Donald Wittkowski
Frances Steelman reached into a trash bag she was carrying and pulled out a hunk of Styrofoam that she found in the dunes overlooking Sea Isle City’s beaches.
But that wasn’t the only thing in the trash bag. Steelman and her 13-year-old granddaughter, Isabella, also plucked plastic cups, cigarette butts, food wrappers, construction debris and even a rubber glove out of the vegetation covering the dunes.
“There are a lot of cigarette butts. It’s terrible,” Steelman said, shaking her head in disgust.
Steelman and Isabella were among about 250 environmentally conscious volunteers who picked up litter Saturday morning during Sea Isle’s annual spring beach cleanup that spans the entire length of the barrier island.
“We have the beaches from First to 93rd streets covered. We’re also along the bay, in Fish Alley and up to Townsends Inlet and Townsends Inlet Waterfront Park,” said Annette Lombardo, chairperson of the Sea Isle Environmental Commission, which organized the cleanup.
Sea Isle was among the coastal communities that partnered Saturday with the state environmental group Clean Ocean Action to remove trash from New Jersey’s beaches, waterfront parks and wildlife areas during the 33rd annual event.
Lombardo and others in Sea Isle stressed the importance of keeping the dunes, beaches and ocean as clean as possible – especially in a town that wants to look spotless when throngs of vacationers arrive for the summer season beginning Memorial Day weekend.
“If we don’t have clean beaches, they won’t come here,” said Katherine Custer, the city’s public information officer.
Steelman, a Sea Isle resident, is a member of the Environmental Commission. She and her granddaughter said they believe it is their responsibility to help keep their hometown free of litter.
“I want to make sure there’s no trash anywhere so that people will always come here,” said Isabella Steelman, a seventh grader.
Carrying a large black trash bag and wearing rubber gloves, Isabella and her grandmother methodically worked their way through a thicket of dune vegetation just off Sea Isle’s oceanfront Promenade. A chunk of white Styrofoam that they picked up – along with other trash – appeared to be packing material.
“Can you believe we found this?” Frances Steelman said incredulously while holding up the Styrofoam.
Ken Stewart, a resident of Pine Hill, N.J., who has a summer home in Sea Isle, was another volunteer for the beach cleanup. Stewart was handed a trash bag by Maria Andrews, a member of the Environmental Commission, when he showed up with his wife, Fatima.
Stewart explained that he and his wife have participated in the beach cleanup for about nine years. He said it seems like the volunteers are making a difference in their efforts to protect the environment.
“It’s only a couple of hours, but we are all trying to do something to keep the beaches clean. Every little bit helps,” Stewart said.
On the 14th Street beach, newly appointed Sea Isle Police Chief Tom McQuillen led a group of police officers and their family members during the cleanup. McQuillen noted that the beach sweep is an example of how the police officers are closely involved in their community.
“We are part of our community and this is an illustration of that,” he said. “We care about this town. This is our commitment to this town, on and off duty.”
McQuillen and the other officers cleaned up the 14th Street beach in memory of a fallen comrade, Ptl. Michael P. “Mickey” Cullinane Sr., whose badge number was 14. Cullinane was overcome by lethal gases while rescuing a construction worker from a pit on Aug. 26, 1992, becoming the only Sea Isle police officer ever killed in the line of duty.
After the cleanup, the volunteers were treated to a free lunch buffet at Mike’s Seafood & Dock Restaurant, the bayside eatery on Park Road. Mike Monichetti, the owner of Mike’s Seafood, said he and his family have sponsored the buffet for the past eight years.
Monichetti recalled attending a City Council meeting eight years ago when an announcement was made that the beach sweep volunteers would be given hotdogs and bottled water. He thought they deserved something better, so he stepped in to host his buffet.
“I sat there at the City Council meeting thinking to myself, ‘These people are giving up their Saturday to come here and clean up our beaches and all we’re going to give them are hotdogs and bottled water?’” Monichetti said. “The beach is our biggest asset in Sea Isle, so I thought I would so something special for the families who help keep it clean.”
On Saturday, the volunteers dined on sausage and peppers, grilled chicken over penne, linguini and clams, mussels marinara and chili. For the children, the buffet included hotdogs, chicken fingers and French fries.
The buffet has proved to be a popular way of attracting more volunteers to the beach cleanup. Prior to the buffet being started, the beach sweep would usually attract only 40 to 60 people, but now averages between 200 and 250, Monichetti and organizers said.
Monichetti said he hosted 260 volunteers at the buffet after the 2017 spring beach cleanup and 110 during last fall’s event.
