International Coastal Cleanup Day

The Friends of A1A Scenic and Historic Coastal Byway, in partnership with the Ocean Conservancy, invites volunteers to help clean up local beaches on International Coastal Cleanup Day on Saturday, September 19, 2020.

The event takes place on the beaches from Marineland to Flagler Beach. Volunteers can pick up their supplies at the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve Visitor Center in Ponte Vedra Beach and at the GTM offices in Marineland. Several teams have been set up for different locations — email here to find information for your area.

International Coastal Cleanup Day is a global initiative to increase awareness about the importance of maintaining our shores as well as to contribute data to an international website on marine debris. It's the world's largest single-day volunteer effort to remove trash from our beaches, waterways, lakes, rivers and parks. Last year, nearly 800,000 volunteers came together to collect more than 18 million pounds of trash.

Learn more about this global effort at the Ocean Conservancy's website here.

Participants should bring a water bottle and sunscreen and be dressed for the weather.

When: Saturday, September 19, 2020, from 8:00 to 11:00 a.m.

Where: Volunteers can check in at the St. Johns Ocean Pier park for St. Augustine beaches, Genung's Fish Camp for Matanzas area and south beaches, the GTM Field Station on A1A (9741 N Ocean Shore Blvd, St. Augustine, FL 32080) for the Marineland area, and at the Crescent Beach Pavilion for Crescent Beach.