— by Cara Russell —
It was 9 a.m. on Saturday morning, and Kira Bradshaw stood alone at the Village Green in Eastsound.
For months she had been building the buzz about “Saturday April 5th — Orcas Island’s first Great Island Clean-up!” This was the day, and Bradshaw had everything ready, trash bags and gloves, safety vests and cones, even coffee. “I really didn’t know if anyone would show up,” she said. But at 10:15 a.m., about 40 people came walking up the street ready to work, and the rest of the day was history.
The Great Island Clean Up! reached all corners and curves of Orcas Island, and from 10 a.m.—noon, people in bright orange vests along the side of the road, picking up trash and hauling heavy full bags, were a common sight. Clean-up crews were separated into sub-groups, with Bradshaw in town at the ‘headquarters.’ The sub-groups, all equipped with a team leader, took their supplies and scatted across the island, from Deer Harbor all the way to Olga and Obstruction Pass, to clean up the beaches, roadsides and waysides.
The team leaders made sure that all of the volunteers were safe and had all supplies and equipment needed such as grabbers, bags, safety vests, and gloves. They then hauled their full trash bags to designated pick-up spots, where San Juan Sanitation collected the litter at noon. The pick-up was paid for by Orcas Recycling Services (ORS), who was more than happy to do it. “It was a great trade,” said ORS director Pete Moe.
While 51 people RSVPed on Facebook, the turnout yielded more than 60 bags of trash, collected by 90 individuals, all of whom seemed to say the same thing, “I’ve been wanting to do this for so long.”
The effort was county-wide. While Orcas averaged 32.5 lbs per person, collecting overall 2,440 lbs of trash, San Juan Island collected 1,960 lbs of trash, for a combined total of 4,360 lbs taken from the roadsides and beaches on both Islands. County Council member Rick Hughes plans to create a county-wide trophy for next year, to award for the most trash collected.
In Rosario, Keith Whitaker gathered as much as he could along Rosario road, near his home. “Every ten steps I found another empty beer, wine, or hard alcohol bottle,” he said. “My coolest find of the day was an antique glass wire insulator, in perfect condition! Probably one of the insulators from the original lines run down the Rosario when Moran was building it,” he said.
Whitaker also found two trash sites created by other island residents — raccoons. “I found a couple of raccoon nests with piles of empty food bags that they probably pulled from trash cans.”
In Olga, Katie Wilkins reported a turnout of 13 volunteers from the hamlet. In Doe Bay there were eight. Meanwhile, out near the Grange and the Orcas Transfer Station, volunteers found many pieces of trash that had been intended for the recycling center, but didn’t quite make it. “People need to make sure that they cover their dump loads, as we found many crushed recycling cans along the road,” said one volunteer.
In Deer Harbor, the trash collected appeared to be decades old, as well as full doggie poop bags that had been left dangling from branches, like low-hanging fruit. 140 lbs were collected from Deer Harbor from Channel Road into the marsh and Marina, and past the Post Office and up into the neighborhood above the Marina.
In Eastound, Rowan Lister found a sealed bottle of saline water on Crescent Beach. Also in town, the Odd Fellows and Oddesses found the majority of the collected trash in the blackberry bushes. “People, probably teenagers, are going out to Madrona Point, parking, drinking, and then tossing the empty beer bottles into the blackberry bushes,” said Odd Fellow Didier Gincig, who cleaned from the Hall down to Madrona Point. “We’d like to see people who use Madrona Point be more conscious of the environment. After cleaning up, the Odd Fellows decided that from here on out, they will be responsible for the trash clean-up in the Madrona Point area.
Along a pedestrian path behind the Eastsound Fire Department, a group veered off of the path and into the woods, where they found an abandoned camp. They spent much of their time dismantling the camp site, removing things like bean bag chairs, a tent, a road sign, and many empty PBR beer bottles. Clearly someone had put a lot of work into this temporary dwelling. Due to that find, Bradshaw was busy on her cell phone trying to track down a truck. “Next year we will need more pickup truck volunteers,” said Bradshaw.
Aside from the groups, there were also some ‘lone wolfs’ spotted along Crow Valley Road and Rosario Road. Islanders took the initiative and went out on their own to gather trash along the roads near their home. They brought their own bags, and hauled the trash either to ORS themselves, or to one of the drop-off destinations.
Throughout the day people kept appearing with items, hoping to win the ultimate prize, ‘given to the finder of the funkiest junk on the island.’ The prizes will be awarded (as soon as the winners are named), with a $20 gift certificate to Fashion Fairy for the kid winner, and a clay growler made by Philip Shane of Orcas Island Growlers, for the adult prize. The growler can be filled for free by Island Hoppin Brewery. There will also be a questionnaire at Fashion Fairy for people to fill out with their thoughts on the event and how it went.
Next year Bradshaw plans to have more prizes, competitive teams, more food and refreshments, and she hopes to make the event happen twice a year, once in April (spring cleaning), and again in October (after the tourist season).
There were also items that Bradshaw decided were indeed not junk. She kept a T-shirt that had been tie-dyed (or in this case tide-dyed) by sun and the salt water, as well as a beautiful blue twisted sea glass bottle.
To top off the day, a special event was held that evening at Random House, to celebrate the work and accomplishments of the Great Island Cleanup! Everyone was invited to come out to the dance party with DJ Teacher’s Pet, and dance their trash pickin’ hearts out.
“We really accomplished a lot in just two hours of work,” said Bradshaw. “I am so proud of what happened today. It really is true that on Orcas Island, any goal is possible.”
Special thanks to multiple organizations and businesses include: The Exchange/ORS, Island Market, Ace Hardware, Island Hardware, San Juan Sanitation, The Chamber of Commerce, Ray’s Pharmacy, The County, OIFR, Orcas Island Airport, the Odd Fellows, The Grange, The Bike Shop, and Island Excavating.
People who helped in the organization efforts are: Katie Wilkins, Kennan Henriques, Pete Moe, Michael Greenberg, Katie Korus, Tommy Blough, Tom Fiscus, Steven Lindgren, Logan Luft, and Phil Heikkinen.
On a final note, in case you were wondering how many littering citations were issued out by the Sherriff’s Dept. in 2013—there were none, per Sally Rogers, Public Records Clerk!
High kudos for Kira Bradshaw and her determination to spearhead what will become – it seems to me – a regular effort by the community to turn awareness into action!