The 25th Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach Fall Cleanup will be held from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Sept. 24 at three sites in our area.

“Any day is a good day to go the beach, but Adopt-A-Beach Cleanups are something special,” said Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson. “Come on down for a fun-filled day with about 10,000 other Texans who care about the coast.”

Volunteers should wear shoes, a hat and sunscreen. Volunteers will be given data cards, gloves, pencils and trash bags. Most sites along the coast conclude the day’s cleanup with cold drinks, hot food and lots of fun.

Volunteers may register on-line at www.TexasAdoptABeach.org or become a fan of the Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach program on Facebook. Texans who can’t make it to the beach but still want to support the effort can make a tax-deductible donation at www.TexasAdoptABeach.org. Sponsorship levels range from $25 to $25,000.

The Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach program began in the fall of 1986, when 2,800 volunteers picked up 124 tons of trash. Since then, it has grown into one of the most successful all-volunteer efforts in the nation. In 25 years, 413,000 Adopt-A-Beach volunteers have picked up more than 8,000 tons of trash from the Texas Gulf Coast.

The data collected from the beach cleanups played an integral part in the passage of MARPOL Annex V, an international treaty that prohibits the dumping of plastics in the world’s oceans. In July of 1991, the International Maritime Organization designated the Gulf of Mexico and the Wider Caribbean as a “special area” where the dumping of trash, with the exception of finely ground food scraps, is prohibited.

Shell Oil Company is the statewide sponsor for the 25th Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach Fall Cleanup. Other sponsors include HNTB Corporation, AkzoNobel Surface Chemistry LLC, El Paso Corporation, Halliburton and the Ocean Conservancy. Local news media sponsors for the cleanup include the following Victoria stations: KAVU-TV ABC 25, KVCT-TV FOX 19, KMOL-TV NBC 17, KXTS-TV MY 41, KUNU-TV Univision 21, KVTX-TV Telemundo 45, and Town Squre Media radio stations KIXS-FM, KQVT-FM, KLUB-FM and KTXN-FM.

For more information about how you can get involved, call 1-877-TXCOAST or visit our Web site at www.texasadoptabeach.org.

Adopt-A-Beach Fall Cleanup check-in sites in our area:

• Magnolia Beach/Indianola – Calhoun County
Check-in: Crabbin’ Bridge
Contact: Rhonda Cummins, 361-552-9747,
rhonda.cummins@texasadoptabeach.org

• King Fisher Beach, Port O’Connor—Calhoun County
Check-in: Pavilion at King Fisher Beach
Contact: Debbie Gayle, 361-552-3200 (daytime),
361-983-4647 (evening) debbie.gayle@texasadoptabeach.org

• Austwell Pier—Refugio County
Check-in: Austwell Pier
Contact: Dwight Mutschler, 361-286-3762;
austwellredfish@texasadoptabeach.org