101 Bags of Trash on the Road
Enjoying the beautiful weather, participants met at Ocracoke School to get bright orange bags and vests, and choose a section of the island to “sweep.” The Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts turned out to help, as did members of the Ocracoke United Methodist Youth Group. Some other Ocracoke high school students participated, too, and their litter pick-up time can be counted toward their required community service hours.
Ocracoke Island Realty, Ride the Wind Surf Shop, and Village Thrift encouraged their staff to participate. NPS pitched in and cleaned up along South Point Road.
Organizer Dolores Gilbert said the Sweep was “a wonderful group effort!”
The volunteers picked up garbage and more garbage, which included amazing amounts of plastic. They also found some bigger pieces like lumber, propane tanks, couch cushions, and tires. They filled 101 big orange garbage bags.
Dolores's husband, John, gathered the bags from the road and took them to the dump. He filled his pick-up truck three times with the debris.
Tom Pahl worked with three young Cub Scouts: Ethan O’Neal, Joey Dow, and David Styron. They were assigned to clean up Lighthouse Road and Creek Roads.
“They were great,” said Tom. “They wanted to go deep in the brush, way back in where nobody else would go.
By the time they’d finished the boys were calling themselves the Deep Dive Team and Seal Team 6.
In spite of their hard work, there’s still plenty of trash to clean up on the island.
“We just scratched the surface,” said Tyler Gilbert, who was helping with the older Scouts.
The NC Litter Sweep officially continues until the 27th. The Ocracoke Trash Troop is also planning to do a “wader walk.”
“We are going to wear our waders and get in the hard to reach ditches along Highway 12,” she said.
