By Donald Wittkowski
Connie and John Allen shook their heads in disbelief while looking at the four trash bags containing all of the litter that they had removed from Sea Isle City’s beaches.
“Beer cans, soda cans, beer bottles, plastic water bottles,” John Allen began while recounting some of the junk he plucked out of the sand.
After pausing for a moment, he continued, “We also found balloons, balloon strings, cigarette butts and candy wrappers. There were also a lot of sandals and flip-flops. I also found some old beach chairs and some boogie boards.”
The Allens, a sister and brother who live in Quinton, Salem County, were among 180 environmentally conscious volunteers who picked up litter and debris Saturday morning during Sea Isle’s fall beach cleanup that spans the entire length of the barrier island.
“We covered every beach, almost,” said Annette Lombardo, chairwoman of the Sea Isle City Environmental Commission, which organized the event.
Wearing rubber gloves and carrying large trash bags, the volunteers fanned out from First Street to 94th Street to remove trash from the beaches and dunes. Some of the discarded items were unusual.
“I found a hat,” 12-year-old Lauren Owings said of one of the stranger things she came across.
Lauren was joined on the beach cleanup by her father, Tom Owings, of Marlton, her cousins, Megan and Kaitlin Cleary, and their father, Ed Cleary, of Lansdale, Pa. Their family has a vacation home in Sea Isle.
Among the odds and ends they picked up were cans, bottles, cigarette butts, children’s shoes and some plastic toy shovels.
“We also found a lot of plastic shopping bags,” Ed Cleary said.
Despite their young age, Lauren Owings and her cousins, Megan, 16, and Kaitlin, 13, hope they are doing their part to protect the environment and marine life by participating in the beach cleanup.
“I love the animals in the ocean,” Lauren said. “I don’t want them to die. Trash can get caught in their digestive system and they can die.”
Twice a year, in the fall and spring, Sea Isle organizes the beach cleanup in partnership with the New Jersey environmental group Clean Ocean Action.
Lombardo said the event began in 1986. Over the years, the beach sweep has become multi-generational, she pointed out.
“We have had some of the same volunteers coming here for years. They started cleaning up the beach when they were children. Now, they have their own families and are bringing their children here,” Lombado said. “It’s the second and third generation.”
Connie and John Allen began vacationing in Sea Isle with their parents when they were children. As adults, Connie, 55, and John, 47, visit the beach nearly every week in summer. More than anything else, they want to keep the beaches clean, Connie stressed.
“There are so many trash cans around. I just can’t understand why people can’t put their junk in the trash cans. Take some pride,” she said.
In addition to families, the volunteers on Saturday included Girls Scouts, Boy Scouts, members of Sea Isle’s police department and employees from a Coca-Cola distribution facility in Marmora. Lombardo said the Coca-Cola employees have been volunteering for about 20 years.
While some volunteers were busy cleaning the beaches, others were planting vegetation in the environmentally fragile dunes to help protect them from storms.
Down on his hands and knees, Jerry McManus used a trowel to plant dune grass on the 42nd Street beach. His wife, Mary, watched.
“I just want to keep the environment nice – to keep things up,” McManus said. “I’m protecting the dunes and protecting the environment.”
McManus and his wife, who live in Springfield, Pa., have a summer condominium in Sea Isle on 42nd Street. They said they are regulars at the annual beach cleanup.
“Whenever I see trash around, I pick it up,” Jerry McManus said. “I just don’t like to see trash around.”
Keeping the dunes, beaches and ocean as clean as possible is especially important in the summer season, when throngs of tourists arrive on vacation. Sea Isle wants to make a good impression on the visitors by having pristine beaches, city officials say.
As a community, the residents of Sea Isle seem particularly serious about protecting the environment, Lombardo said.
“They’re just very environmentally conscious,” she noted.
Lombardo said the strong turnout Saturday of 180 volunteers underscored the community’s commitment to the environment. She praised them for braving the rainy skies and chilly temperatures that gave the morning a gloomy feel.
After the cleanup, the volunteers were treated to a free lunch buffet at Mike’s Seafood & Dock Restaurant, a bayside eatery on Park Road. Mike Monichetti, the owner of Mike’s Seafood, and his family have sponsored the buffet for about 10 years.
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 have only 40 to 60 people, but in recent years it has drawn up to 200 to 250 volunteers, depending on the weather, organizers said.
