Volunteers with Keep Golden Isles Beautiful kick off clean, green, and beautiful 2020.

Keep Golden Isles Beautiful (KGIB), located in Brunswick, Georgia, hosted its third annual New Year’s Day beach sweep at St. Simon’s Island. The event was started and continues to be led by KGIB volunteers Jenn and Mike Hatcher.  

The event invites the community to help clean up possible litter left behind from New Year’s Eve celebrations. On Jan. 1, 61 volunteers contributed nearly 110 hours and collected 390 pounds of trash, including pieces of wood, a boogie board, a chair, and crab trap.

“Of the [litter found], the majority was ‘tiny’ pieces of trash such as cigarette butts, bottle caps, fireworks debris, etc., which makes that 390 [pounds] all the more impressive,” said Lea King-Badyna, executive director of Keep Golden Isles Beautiful. “Keeping these tiny bits of trash off of the beach prevents them from becoming marine debris.”

KGIB provided gloves and trash bags, as well as Yamaha Rightwaters burlap bags, which participants were able to keep.

“Thank you [to] the volunteers that began 2020 Making a Difference in the Golden Isles of Georgia!” King-Badyna added.