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

Seems it’s to soon to even think about Christmas, but certainly not so. Mr. Joe Wiatt has brought to our attention that the past couple years he and his volunteers have placed Christmas trees and Crosses in King Fisher Park. This year the decoration date for the Tree Forest will be Tuesday, November 18th at 10 a.m. at the park. The rain dates will be Wednesday 19th or Thursday, 20th. There will be 8 trees and 3 crosses, requiring 6 to 8 volunteers. If you can be of help, please email jvwiatt@gmal.com or call 713-446-7061. Leave your name and contact information and Joe will respond to you.

The Chamber meeting for November will be on the 13th, –6:30 p.m.–Meeting room of Port O’Connor Community Center. The more people involved, the more that can be accomplished. Hope to see you there.
Renewed Members:

Allen and Laurie Junek

pocc@tisd.net—361-983-2898
www.portoconnorchamber.org

The Port O’Connor Lions Club, in conjunction with the Benevolence Fund, will be accepting donations of Non-perishable food items at the following locations:

First National Bank/POC Branch Lobby
Speedy Stop

Blue tubs will be put at both locations for your convenience. These tubs will be out from October 17th until November 24th for distribution through the Benevolence Fund in the form of Food Baskets. The recipients of these baskets will be determined by the Benevolence Fund membership.

Please be generous in your donations and know that these baskets will remain in our Community and may benefit our friends and neighbors!

Shown above are some of POC 4H Kids, who did 4H One A Day projects in POC this year. They split up into two groups and went to Naomi Albrecht’s and Pat Ekstrom’s and weeded gardens and flower beds. They usually go to Port Lavaca for this project, but the kids decided they wanted to start doing something locally for our community.

A record number of POC residents attended the Chamber of Commerce meeting October 13, to express opposition to the location and size of the proposed, new pavilion for POC Kingfisher Park. However there was overwhelming support for building the new pavilion in the existing location and for keeping the area south of the pavilion and restrooms a green area for families to enjoy. Residents, Commissioner Kenny Finster, and the Board of Directors of the Chamber agreed to continue to work together toward a win-win for the community.

-Steve Ferguson