Friends of Oleta River State Park | International Coastal Cleanup 2019

Welcome to past volunteers and new ones too! We hope you will join the Friends of Oleta for this year's International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) Day! Our meetup point will be at the Osprey pavilion again this year, on the Intracoastal Waterway.

The 34^th annual ICC event will harness the "Power of People" to fight against the critical problem of Ocean Trash!  Join us for the world's largest, one-day volunteer effort to kickoff better protection of our oceans and waterways via a renewed collective commitment to reduce marine debris, alongside volunteers from across the globe!

VolunteerCleanup.org organizes Miami-Dade’s cleanup sites - representing 40+ simultaneous shoreline cleanups around the County, all made possible due to the generous sponsor support of Covanta, with additional support from Capital One Café, Wells Fargo, and Miami Beach Suncare.  

Garbage bags, data collection cards, sunscreen, insect repellent, and a souvenir tote bag with this year’s marine animal theme, the Pelican, will be provided! Community Service hours also provided

Volunteers should please:

• Dress for the weather and wear closed-toed shoes
• Wear sunscreen, sunglasses, and/or a hat for sun protection
• Bring your favorite cleanup gloves if you have them, or we will have cleanup gloves at the Osprey
• Bring a reusable bottle/tumbler for water refills - an event goal will be to strictly limit "single-use disposable plastics"  Water for refills will be provided 

Event and Park waivers: 

• **If you are under 18 and coming without a parent or guardian, you must have a parent/guardian sign the online waiver form: https://forms.gle/g6uuxH6Ni9vTZsws9
• A State Park waiver must be signed on event day
• Volunteers must check-in and sign waivers before any materials (bags, cards, or gift bags can be distributed)

Make a big impact via data:

Download the Ocean Conservancy’s CleanSwell app to participate in the global Citizen Science effort to log, tally, and measure the impact of your cleanup.  It’s easier and more fun than using paper data cards - plus you will help save a tree!

About International Coastal Cleanup:

Scientists estimate that more than 17 billion pounds of plastic enter our oceans every year damaging ecosystems and marine life from corals polyps to sharks, along with threatening human health and local economies.  In response, over the past 34 years, Ocean Conservancy’s ICC event has brought together nearly 13 million people from over 150 countries to collect nearly 250 million pounds of trash from our coastlines and waterways.

Every year during the ICC, volunteers comb lakes, rivers, shorelines, and beaches around the world for litter and debris, collecting everything imaginable from cigarette butts and food wrappers to abandoned fishing gear, automobiles, and kitchen appliances. By volunteering at ICC, you will be actively participating in a global citizen-science project, not only removing marine debris but also cataloging and tallying what you find using the Clean Swell app or event data collection cards. The resulting item-by-item, location-by-location  Ocean Trash Index, which Ocean Conservancy compiles each year, provides the only global snapshot of the marine debris littering coasts and waterways around the world.