Cleaning in the Rain: 5 Lessons from a Save Our Shores Clean Up

Teresa Ruiz Decker
The Changemakers Project
6 min readJan 22, 2016

You’ve seen the headline in the Sentinel before. ‘Volunteers Clean (Insert Beach Name Here) Beach’. “How nice,” you say to yourself as you continue sipping coffee and your eyes scan to the next headline. Now rewind. What if you were one of those volunteers? “Me?” you say. Yes, you!

You could totally be out there saving the world too.

That’s what I did last Saturday. I finally stopped sitting on my warm couch cheering others on from the sidelines mentally and instead went out to a Clean the Streets event by Save Our Shores.

If you are a local here in Santa Cruz, count yourself among the lucky ones to benefit from the work of Save Our Shores. Save Our Shores (SOS) is a nonprofit dedicated to marine conservation (take a look at their site to see this in action). Among other programs, they keep our beautiful beaches trash-free. At its core, the SOS mission really comes down to connecting people to the ocean and consequently helping people understand what a precious, natural wonder we have in our backyard.

I found out about this particular Save Our Shores clean up on a NextDoor.com thread discussing how to improve my neighborhood of Pleasure Point. I’d met a few folks from SOS before and each time I find them to be passionate, knowledgeable and totally cool. This was part of the reason I decided to volunteer, but truth be told I was a little hesitant at first. I have a two year-old daughter so I knew my contributions and time would be limited that day. Katy Manning, our organizer, was totally understanding and welcoming. She hosts Clean the Streets each third Saturday of the month rain or shine (though for real storms dates are shifted). She was happy to have us and the 5 other volunteers who made it out that morning.

Here’s a look at what I learned on my very first clean up with Save Our Shores.

1. They start on time

Especially when it is raining! I pulled up to the parking lot of Brommer Park at 8:59 AM for the 9 AM clean up, and several volunteers were already gathered around Katy receiving instruction. Katy was standing in a rain slicker with the back of her supplied filled trunk popped open waiting for folks to arrive. She gave each of us the run down of the morning’s trash busting mission to clean up Rodeo Gulch (including the adjacent Brommer Park) and spread the team out across the clean up area which is usually 1–2 miles. She thoughtfully explained the goals, provided tips and answered questions with the ease of a pro and warmth of a good neighbor. Keep in mind you can bring your own gear but SOS also has supplies. Katy geared us up with some gloves, a data collection card, a bucket and off we went into the wild.

2. You collect data, not just trash

Each year Save Our Shores counts the pounds of trash collected. So you know these folks are serious about data. Last year they collected about 49,469 lbs of trash that would have ended up in our oceans. Turns out they not only try to weigh all trash collected but they also try to ID the types of trash collected. Beer caps, broken glass, balloon strings, paper plates, styrofoam cups and yes, even needles — if we pick it up, they want to know what it is.

3. SOS takes safety seriously

Speaking of needles, what should you do if you come across one? I was a little freaked out since I had my toddler with me and wanted to make sure she was safe. So did Katy, so she told me volunteers should wait for her to come to the location of the needle to collect it. Since this happens often, SOS reps have special collection containers just for needles. I didn’t come across any that day but I was glad to have the right knowledge about what do to if I did.

4. You’ll meet your neighbors

Scroll ahead and look at the photos below. Really, just do it! Take a look and then come back.

Weren’t those pictures awesome? Those kind folks are actually my neighbors. People who live within a few miles of me, but I’ve never really met in person before.

What I love about the photos most is that each one represents a story that person now carries with them and can share about how they improved the place they call home.

Those photos are also proof that you can accomplish a lot in an hour and a half of work. That’s all the time it took for the trash to really start rolling in. Volunteers that day found entire encampments, mattresses, shower curtains, card board boxes and more. I couldn’t go that deep into the gulch but my little duo definitely filled our buckets with trash from the park including paper plates, food wrappers, balloon strings, chapstick, clothes and newspapers. My neighbors hauled in several large bags of trash and two shopping carts (we put those to good use too). The couple in the photo below said their cart filled with trash wasn’t even a fraction of what they saw down in the gulch.

A shopping cart used to haul out the trash from the gulch.
Brian proves that picking up trash can be a work out.
Selena and I with our boots and buckets ready to clean house, errr park.

5. You find out where the trash goes

So what do you do with loads of trash once you collect it? It actually needs to get weighed. I was a little surprised but totally impressed that Katy would be packing all the trash she could fit in the trunk of her car to be weighed then disposed of. That’s the data part again.

Katy reported back that our grand total for the day was 258 pounds of trash and 76 pounds of recycling.

What about the the other loads of trash people found but couldn’t get out of the gulch? From what I understand those areas will actually need to be geotagged and shared with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office will most likely schedule a formal trash removal pick up with the county. Or they can assign the task of cleaning up to people with community service hours to work off.

That’s a wrap!

We had only been out for about an hour and a half but by the end of our shift, I was muddy, full of grass and my toddler was SO ready for a nap. When I turned around to survey the small area Selena and I had covered it looked good. The difference was small but noticeable. All the small white pieces of trash that had dotted the playground and hills before were gone. The grass was green and dewey. The trees with bare branches and fall colored leaves set as the backdrop. Everything looked fresh and new again. That’s the beauty of this sort of volunteering. You really just decide to do it, show up and contribute whatever you feel is right. Anything you do is appreciated and will make a difference.

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Teresa Ruiz Decker
The Changemakers Project

Marketing and communications consultant for social good. #DiversityandInclusion #HigherEd #EconomicEmpowerment http://teresaruizdecker.com