Alternative Spring Break 2009

Thanks to Royal American Hospitality, we're housing alternative spring breakers again this year. And thanks to last year's participants, we have a better approach this year: prevention instead of cure. Our students will not be picking up trash. They will be handing out trash bags to fellow Spring Breakers, encouraging them to bag all their litter before it hits the sand or the water.

Stay tuned here for daily reports, starting in March!

The World's Most Beautiful Beaches!

This is, by far, the best place on earth on a September day like this one...

International Coastal Cleanup Day - This Saturday

Thanks to this online Newsherald Article, I know that I won't be able to sleep in this Saturday. Hope you'll join me.

Free Trip to Paradise this Saturday

Just meet us down on the beach at Pier Park this Saturday at 9 AM. For two solid hours, you'll be able to walk the world's most beautiful beaches, enjoying a true paradise on earth. Along the way, we'll pick up trash, but that will just enhance your experience. Organized by Bay Families with Dogs... let's go help!

Results of Alternative Spring Break Cleanup

LSU student volunteers did a great job last week. Their immediate ideas were the same as the previous schools'... more cans, more bags, more recycle bins. Don't allow vendors on the sand to hand out anything that will become trash on the beach. You know, more common-sense stuff you'd hope to hear from today's brightest young minds.

Antoine, one of the volunteers who looked like a lineman on the Tiger's National Championship D, came up with a fun idea: have a contest to see which school can turn in the most cans. Give those guys something to win, and you might have a fun way to keep the beach clean.

Regardless of all the ideas, most of us realized it will be much easier to prevent litter than to clean it up.

This is just the beginning... these students proved that there are such things as great spring breakers, and I believe they will continue to play a part in helping Bay County find better ways to preserve our most valuable asset.

Welcome LSU!

A smaller group than last week in numbers, but equally big in desire to help keep the beach clean! Stay tuned for LSU's progress and ideas to clean up the trash!

Thank you ASU and ECU!

As you can see in the photo, you were missed this weekend!

The 28 student volunteers and leaders who visited our beach last week made what should be a great impact in our community and on the image of Panama City Beach.

Only the lack of attention and follow-through by the community and business leaders would result in a wasted effort.

These brainiacs and civil servants came up with the following ideas and actions they will take:

1. Will write to the corporations who handed out samples, brochures and any other material that eventually became trash in the sand.

2. Will write our community leaders to ask for their help in preventing trash on the beach.

3. Wants more signage and enforcement of litter laws.

4. Wants bags available at the public beach entrances and at the hotel/condo lounges (beach services).

5. MTV and other companies denied permits to be on the beach unless they provide complete prevention and pickup.

6. No glass or Styrofoam allowed on sand.

7. Have manned recycling stations where students can cash in their recyclables for shirts, sunscreen, hats, or even cash.

8. Ensure that volunteers have "Volunteer" on their shirts so the other students don't think that trash pickup is a free service.

9. Get the local schools involved to keep the beach clean as a part of their physical fitness program. (Picking up trash for 4 hours in the sand IS A WORKOUT!)

10. Will keep up with the information provided by the Surfrider Foundation, and hopefully see our beach one day with no trash in the sand.

Again, students and team leaders, I can't thank you enough for your effort and ideas.