By Kathryn Brooks
CCS Marine Debris Program Assistant
The new CCS Beach Brigade flag signals the gathering spot for our cleanups.
Perseverance and determination. If at first you don’t succeed, take a look at what you did, get feedback from others, and make adjustments.
My first week of the “Early Bird” cleanups was unsuccessful. I was at Scusset Beach at 6 a.m ready to go, but with an uneasy feeling. Nobody signed up, and unsurprisingly, nobody showed up. I cleaned the beach on my own, thinking about how I could make sure this didn’t happen again.
I received feedback from a handful of people, and it seemed like the first step to increase participation was to change the start time – 6am was early. Much earlier than I had originally thought! The choice to do a cleanup at 6am was made with the best of intentions, but it wasn’t going to work. Our “Early Bird” cleanups are now scheduled for 7am start time, a bit more practical, and I still achieve my goal of beating the heat, the crowds, and the parking fees.
The idea for “Early Bird” cleanups came from my love of going out to breakfast. Some places have specials if you arrive before a certain time, or they may just serve dishes called the “early bird special”.
Crepes from Fleur de Lis in Los Alamos, New Mexico, one of my favorite breakfasts!!
I thought this would be a really good idea for summer beach cleanups because you can’t successfully clean a beach if it’s packed with beach-goers. Summer can be hot, beaches charge for parking, and some people still have jobs to go to during the week, so an early cleanup would be the best way to go. I know people also like beachwalking in the mornings, so I wanted to try to get those people interested as well. If there’s a will, there’s a way! I was determined to continue to clean the beaches during the summer, a season when our program has typically taken a break from cleanups.
CCS is expanding its data collection from cleanups, and I wanted to reach beaches from Provincetown to Boston; with the help of our partners at the Urban Harbors Institute, we will do just that! Every Tuesday, June through August, there will be a cleanup on Cape Cod and up toward the Boston area. We even have interest from the Cape Cod National Seashore, who may jump in with Early Bird cleanups of their own!
The hope is that these cleanups and the data they generate will inspire and engage communities to keep their environment clean, refuse single use plastics, and become aware of where beach trash comes from (everywhere!). Compared to our other cleanups at CCS, I think this series will be very unique. They are once a week, they are early, and they are only an hour long, where most of our other cleanups are on the Outer Cape and are a couple hours in length. Many hands make light work, so a lot can be achieved in a short period of time with even just a handful of volunteers!
CCS datasheet with information from the Hatches Harbor cleanup in February 2022.
I am very excited to see how the rest of these cleanups will turn out. Please email me for more information at [email protected] or follow @CCSdebrisbrigade on Instagram to stay updated. I hope to see you soon at an Early Bird cleanup near you!
