Friends of Oleta River State Park | International Coastal Cleanup

Welcome to our past volunteers and new ones too, hope you will join the  Friends of Oleta River State Park for a cleanup as part of International Coastal Cleanup Day!

If you have visited Oleta, we bet you know that litter on our shorelines is a critical issue.  Scientists have estimated that more than 17 billion pounds of plastic enter our ocean yearly, which threatens marine life and land species too, along with human health and local economies.  Help us make an impact at the 33rd annual International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) the world's largest, one-day volunteer effort, where you can commit to reducing marine debris in unison with volunteers from across the globe!

We will be kicking the day off with signing in at the Osprey Pavilion, parking lot #3 - but lot 2 and 4 are very close also.  Starbucks Surfside is donating delicious coffee to start our day again this year!

Presented by Covanta, VolunteerCleanup.org organizes Miami-Dade’s participation in this global event with 45+ simultaneous shoreline cleanups around the county and is made possible with additional support from The City of Miami Beach and MB Rising Above, Capital One, Revolution 93.5 FM, and MB Miami Beach Suncare.

VolunteerCleanup will provide garbage bags, data collection cards, sunscreen, insect repellent, and a souvenir tote bag with this year’s marine animal theme, the Puffer Fish! The Friends will also have some "to-be-announced" perks for our volunteers too!

The Friends will provide you Community Service hours with our nonprofit, please make sure to let us know ahead of time if you have special requests for this.

Volunteers should please:

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

Event and Park waivers: 

• **If you are under 18 and coming without a parent or guardian, you must have a parent/guardian sign the waiver below in advance. Download Waiver
• A State Park waiver must also be completed, which we will send to you
• Volunteers must check-in and sign waivers before any materials (bags, cards, or gift bags can be distributed)

We suggest that you:

Download the Ocean Conservancy’s CleanSwell app to participate in the Citizen Science activity to log, tally and measure the impact of your cleanup.  It’s easier and more fun than using the paper data cards!

About International Coastal Cleanup

Over the past 33 years, Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup has brought together nearly 13 million people from over 150 countries to collect nearly 250 million pounds of trash along our coastlines and waterways.

We are excited that you will join us for this day of positive community impact - a global citizen science project.  We will not only remove large quantities of potential marine debris but also catalogue, categorize, and tally what we collect via the Ocean Conservancy Clean Swell app (or data cards).  The resulting fine-scale data will support the Ocean Trash Index,  an indicator updated annually by the Ocean Conservancy to provide a unique global snapshot of marine debris littering coasts and waterways around the world.

Please reach out to us with any questions or concerns via email: [email protected] ...see you soon at Oleta!