Hope High School Environmental Club took part in the annual Adopt-A-beach clean-up. The club has adopted the Point Comfort causeway beach and cleans it at least twice a year. Fifteen bags of trash were collected on Friday. The most unusual item found was a bar-b-que pit. Students pictured (l-r): Dakota Hamilton, Jeremy Thumann, David Esquivel, Elijah Liserio, Veranda Arellano, Rex Cantu, Erick Cano, Bethany Vasquez, Hector Jimenez, Callie Wright, Eugene Morales, Amber Valentine, Jose Soto, Kimberly Reyes Club sponsor: Laurie Weaver

Volunteers turned out in droves for the biggest beach cleanup in the nation

A total of 9,318 volunteers picked up more than 143 tons of trash off Texas Beaches Saturday, making the 28th annual Adopt-A-Beach Fall Cleanup — the biggest beach cleanup in the nation — a smashing success.

“This cleanup makes me proud to be a Texan,” said Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, who oversaw his last cleanup as Commissioner with Shell volunteers at San Louis Point in West Galveston. “More than 9,300 people gave up their Saturday to help pickup someone else’s trash. That’s amazing.”

Volunteers collected bags of the usual debris — cigarette butts, beer cans and other litter left by careless beachgoers. But some volunteers discovered some unusual finds on their morning beach comb, several cell phones on Bolivar, a severed rooster’s head on Galveston Island, a wounded sea turtle (which was turned over to the Animal Rehabilitation Keep (ARK) at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas), a recliner at Boggy Nature Park, a pregnancy test kit and a wine bottle on North Padre Island, more than 80 pairs of shoes at King Fisher Beach in Port O’Connor

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of thousands of volunteers, the Adopt-A-Beach program is one of the most successful all-volunteer efforts in the nation. In the past 28 years, more than 475,000 volunteers have removed more than 9,000 tons of trash from Texas beaches.

Texans who couldn’t attend the cleanup but want to help can make a tax-deductible donation online at www.TexasAdoptABeach.org.

Shell Oil Company was the lead statewide sponsor for the 28th Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach Fall Cleanup. Other sponsors include Apache Corporation, Cheniere Energy, Corona Del Mar Properties, Flint Hills Resources, Halliburton, HNTB, the Ocean Conservancy and Schlumberger.

To learn how you can participate, or for additional information on the Adopt-A-Beach program, please visit www.TexasAdoptABeach.org or contact the GLO at 1-877-TX COAST. Those interested may also become a fan of the program at www.facebook.com/texasadoptabeach where event details and results will also be posted.

Adopt-A-Beach

Magnolia Beach 6 miles 103 volunteers
1,375 lbs. of trash

Boggy Nature Park 1 mile 18 volunteers
25 lbs. of trash

King Fisher Beach 1 mile 22 volunteers
500 lbs. of trash

Austwell Pier 1 mile 19 volunteers
350 lbs. of trash