Oct. 3, 2006 – Cigarette butts, plastic bottles, broken glass and more found its way into plastic garbage bags as the 17 students from Mary Burks' fourth-grade class at Julius E. Sprauve School cleaned up Cruz Bay Beach for Coast Weeks.
"It's so we could help the animals so they don't die, especially the turtles," Amoi Athanase said, explaining why he was out there in the hot afternoon sun picking up refuse left behind by others.
Dante Smith said that he was there because he "lived on an island, so we should try to keep it clean."
Burks said that in a few weeks, her students would also tackle Trunk Bay Beach, located within V.I. National Park, so they could chart the difference in the amounts of trash found at a public beach like Cruz Bay and a park beach.
She said that the fourth grade takes on this project because fourth-graders around the nation study their environment.
"We go out and do a lot with the national park," she said.
Park ranger Laurel Brannick said that the students were well-organized for the cleanup. They had appointed team captains and secretaries to keep track of the trash picked up.
At all Coast Weeks cleanups around the world, participants track the amount of trash collected. The Ocean Conservancy — which sponsors the event, known elsewhere as the International Coastal Cleanup — uses the information to help find solutions to the debris problem.
Across the territory, Coast Weeks cleanups, which began in mid-September, wrap up this weekend.
"It's been great," Marcia Taylor of UVI's Marine Advisory Service on St. Croix said.
She said that on St. Croix, 700 people from schools and community groups cleaned up 25 beaches.
The schools are Country Day School, St. Mary's School, Evelyn Williams Elementary School, AZ Academy, Richard Richards Elementary School, Manor School, Lew Muckle Elementary School, St. Croix Educational Complex, Good Hope School, Juanita Guardine Elementary School, UVI, Evelyn Williams Elementary School, School of the Good Shepherd, and St. Joseph's School.
Community groups included a group of divers from Christiansted dive shops, who did an underwater cleanup; St. Croix Hiking Association; Pathfinders; CRABS Dive Club; St. Croix Environmental Association and the V.I. Waste Management Authority.
Taylor said the Waste Management Authority was a co-sponsor of the cleanups. She said the agency handled the collections bins as well as other matters.
Taylor's counterpart on St. Thomas, Elizabeth Ban, estimated that by the time Coast Weeks wraps up this weekend, more than 800 people will have participated in 46 cleanups on St. Thomas and St. John.
"Last year we had 21," she said, pleased at this year's turnout.
She said the St. Thomas list included Antilles School, Montessori School, UVI, the Environmental Rangers from Addelita Cancryn Junior High School, the Eudora Kean High School Junior ROTC, Bertha Boschulte Junior High School, Addelita Cancryn Honor Society, and the Eudora Kean Future Business Leaders of America. On St. John, the Gifft Hill School and Sprauve School participated.
St. Thomas Community groups included the V.I. Parrotheads, the Environmental Association of St. Thomas/St. John, the St. Thomas chapter of the Audubon Society of the Virgin Islands, and the Friends of Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg.
St. John groups included the John's Folly Learning Institute, the Fish Bay Homeowners Association, Maho Bay Camps, St. John Sun Times, R&I Patton jewelry store, the St. John Landsharks, St. John Brewers, and Friends of V.I. National Park.
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