The Environmental Club helped clean shores by participating in the Texas Adopt-A-Beach clean-up on Pirate’s Beach at Galveston Saturday, September 23 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

“Because I come here regularly, I like to clean where I play,” Environmental Club sponsor and science teacher Kim Polis said. “I want to support the Texas Adopt-A-Beach program, and our club has had people willing to do it as well.”

According to Polis, this is the third year the club has participated in the Texas Adopt-A-Beach program: an all-volunteer effort that occurs twice a year to dispose of trash found on Texas beaches. It is also their first time participating in “Beautify the Bucket”: a competition amongst groups to find who can best ‘beautify’ Galveston by painting themed trash barrels. The program’s goal is to increase awareness for issues including beach litter and harmful marine debris.

“Because of Hurricane Harvey, there’s a lot of trash all around the beaches, and it’s spreading everywhere,” club president senior Nanci Orgill said. “We’re coming and taking up little pieces of trash from the beaches because a lot of animals will eat and digest them. It’ll cut up their digestive systems, and we’ll end up killing them. We’re trying to pick up all of the trash we can.”

Members spread out and picked up trash along the coastline. The club members picked up bottle caps, tarnished clothing, pieces of plastic and anything that could potentially harm animals.

“The weirdest thing I had found today was a giant steering wheel,” club member senior Julia Daricek said. “I [also] found a toothbrush and bottle caps.”

According to the Environmental Club, partaking in these events are one of their biggest highlights of the year.

“A lot of what we do are in-school projects, and not a lot of people really know about them,” Orgill said. “But in this [event], we come together with so many different communities and so many different groups. We all work together to clean up so much [of the] beach. It’s a pretty big deal.”

The club has plans to continue helping dispose of trash and being involved in the community.

“Especially because of Hurricane Harvey, I just think that this is doing a little part to help try and make the beach area more pristine and back to its natural state,” Polis said. “Obviously it’s where people live, so it’s a developed area. Any time pollution is in the ocean, which is one of the biggest problems, hurricanes churn all of that up. If we can do a little part in helping clean that up, then I think that it’s a worthwhile Saturday morning well spent.”