Bahia Honda Beach Clean-Up

Leaving Our World Cleaner Than We Found It

After handing us a few trash bags, we began. It wasn't long before we need more and more until they finally gave us the entire box of bags. The girls loved looking at the shells and see what they could find. It was also nice to look behind you to see the difference you were making.

Sponsors

Park Manager Bahia Honda State Park. Provided the beach and the bags for our project.

The last day was the hottest and we were scheduled to pick up trash along the beach at Bahia Honda State Park for four hours. We didn't have a great campsite but the girls still took their obligation seriously apparently more seriously than other groups had done in the past.

We started that morning early with about dozen trash bags that the ranger gave us. We split up into two groups. One group working from one end of the 5 mile beach and the other at the other end. We found all sort of trash-shoes, food wrappers, cans, fishing lines, pieces of lobster traps as well as lots of wood and other trash from two boats that had wrecked just offshore. The wood and filled trash bags were placed on the edge of the road that followed along the beach.

After about thirty minutes we ran out of bags and went back for more. The rangers were quit surprised and gave us a few more. After another hour, we ran out again and went back to the office, where the garbage man had just informed them that he couldn't get all the trash in his truck that morning and would have to pick it up tomorrow. The rangers were astonished at the amount of work the girls were doing. It seems that other groups had done more playing than working and our girls were demonstrating their Oklahoma work ethic.

I told the rangers about how the girls had worked very hard to earn most of the money for this trip, themselves and they were impressed. We continued and picked up nearly all 5 miles of shoreline. I don't know how many days it will take the garbage truck to haul off the trash along that road.