Great Islands Clean-Up Recap

The Island Air crew at the Great Islands Cleanup – Contributed photo

Co-organizers of the 7th annual Great Islands Clean-Up on San Juan Island — Lori Stokes, Jana Marks, and David Dehlendorf — would like to thank our island’s approximately 260 volunteers who participated this year, helping to make San Juan Island “litter-free by the sea.” Over 100 of these litter-picker-uppers cleaned our beaches and the rest cleaned our roadsides. A grand total of about 2,340 pounds of litter was collected!

Many groups provided enthusiastic volunteers: Bailer Hill Construction, Cub Scouts, Friday Harbor Labs, Island Air, Islanders Bank, Kiwanis, League of Women Voters, Leo’s Club, Lions, Mitchell Pt. Litter Ladies & Gents, Mt. Dallas Volunteer Group, Paideia School, Ravenhill Construction, Rotary, Safe Harbor Insurance, San Juan County Land Bank, Soroptimists, Spring Street International School, Stillpoint School, Trash Masters, and Washington State Ferries. These groups were supplemented by the efforts of numerous other volunteers who picked up litter near their homes or businesses, as well as by the state’s Ecology Youth Corps.

A HUGE thank you goes to Pete Moe of Orcas, Nikyta Palmisani and Nick Teague of Lopez, and Stephanie Buffum-Field of Shaw, who organized parallel clean-up events on their islands. Orcas, Lopez, and Shaw had a combined total of 210 participants who collected over 4,300 pounds of litter! Thanks also to Danielle Wheeler, who did an awesome job with online publicity.

A special shout-out goes to San Juan Sanitation for picking up and disposing of many of the collected bags of litter, as well as to Mark Herrenkohl of San Juan County Public Works, who helped coordinate the islands-wide event and supplied grabbers, gloves, vests, and bags to participants on San Juan Island.

Stillpoint School students clean up – Contributed photo

Georgia Smith cleans up – Contributed photo

Soroptimists clean up – Contributed photo

Islanders Bank cleans up – Contributed photo

Kiwanis cleans up – Contributed photo

You can support the San Juan Update by doing business with our loyal advertisers, and by making a one-time contribution or a recurring donation.