For immediate release
September 8, 2020
Contact: Angela Underwood
[email protected] | (251) 928-9792
33rd Annual Alabama Coastal Cleanup Set for September 19-27
Are you, like nearly everyone else, looking for a reason to get outside and “do something?” Get your friends and family together and help get the trash out of the splash during the 33rd Annual Alabama Coastal Cleanup. Kicking off on Saturday, September 19, organizers have come up with a plan to keep participants safe while helping the coastal environment, including ordering 5,000 masks for all volunteers.
“We are looking forward to a large, coast-wide event. We know people want to get out and do something positive,” said Spencer Ryan, Executive Director for Alabama People Against a Littered State (PALS). Working with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Coastal Section (ADCNR), the two organizations pull off the largest one-day volunteer event in Alabama.
This year’s plan extends Coastal Cleanup beyond the one-day event to nine days, concluding on Sept. 27, to allow volunteers time, location, and distance to participate safely. Participants will be able to pick up supplies and t-shirts Sept. 19. Organizers are recommending participants use the Ocean Conservancy’s “Clean Swell” app to tally debris data.
This year’s theme includes “Embrace the Gulf,” a region-wide campaign to recognize the Gulf of Mexico’s positive contributions in everyday lives. Volunteers are needed on foot and on the water, at cleanup sites in Mobile and Baldwin counties. The event provides a t-shirt and basic cleanup supplies for active participants.
“There is really no better way to help the Gulf and our local communities than a morning cleaning up our shorelines,” ADCNR’s Angela Underwood said. “Because of social distancing recommendations and our goal to keep everyone safe, we are encouraging families to pick an area in one of the coastal zones and do their own “coastal cleanup” between Sept. 19 and Sept. 27.”
Stay up to date with the Facebook page facebook.com/AlabamaCoastalCleanup or website alabamacoastalcleanup.com.
For more information or to contact a cleanup site zone captain with participation questions, visit alabamacoastalcleanup.com or call (251) 928-9792.
The Alabama Coastal Cleanup is made possible by the generosity of many, including 2020 returning Title Sponsor—the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. Other sponsors and volunteer organizations include NOAA, Ike’s Beach Service, Bebo’s, LuLu’s, Baldwin EMC, Riviera Utilities, Gulf Shores Utility Board, FloraBama, City of Gulf Shores
City of Orange Beach, Alabama Power, Evonik, Coastal Conservation Association-Alabama, Compass Media,Coast 360
ALDOT, ALFA, Coca Cola, Vulcan Materials, Honda Manufacturing, AL Farmers Cooperative, Association of County Commissions of AL, The Ocean Conservancy, Gulf Shores Orange Beach Tourism, Weeks Bay Foundation, Osprey Initiative and Thompson Engineering.
The Alabama Coastal Cleanup is part of the International Coastal Cleanup, an international effort to remove marine debris from coastal waters. Alabama joined this effort in 1987. The International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) is the largest single-day volunteer event for the marine environment.
For more information contact:
Angela Underwood, ADCNR, (251) 928-9792, [email protected]
Spencer Ryan AL PALS, (334) 263-7737, [email protected]
