Thanks for Great Island Clean-up | Letter

Published 12:09 pm Thursday, April 17, 2014

Last Saturday morning, there were some spectacular happenings across the island. Ninety three energized islanders took off to various places in search of litter. All were amazed at how easy it was to come by, and excited by some of the more interesting finds. There was a real buzz in the air as we all packed our trash bags full and left them for volunteer truck drivers to deliver back to our initial meeting spots.

In only two hours, we were able to lift 2,240 pounds of trash off of our island! It’s a pretty amazing feat that was unfortunately there for our taking, but we took it, and we all had a lot of fun doing it!

This was the first year Orcas has ever participated in the Great Island Clean Up, a tradition of San Juan Island. There are many organizations and special individuals to thank for their support of our event: The Chamber of Commerce, San Juan County Public Works, Orcas Recycling Services/The Exchange, San Juan Sanitation, the Orcas Fire Department, the Library and the Oddfellows.

Businesses who donated supplies and support are Ray’s Pharmacy, Island Market, Island Hardware, Random Howse, Doe Bay and Fashion Fairy Consignment.

Thank you to the Sounder and Orcas Issues for their help to promote and advertise the event.  Along those lines, thank you Brittany Cole and Alejandro Torres for your special contribution in advertising, promotion, and documenting this special day.

Thanks to everyone who came out to help and to these special folks: Rick Hughes, Elizabeth Anderson, Pete Moe, Logan Luft, Chief Kevin O’Brien, Ken Katz and Lori Stokes and David Dehlendorf on San Juan, Katie Wilkins, Katie Korus, Chelsea Cates, Michael Greenberg, Stephen Wright, Mark DeTray, Phil Shane, Thomas Blough, and Ken Henriques. Your great ideas, hard work and encouragement were invaluable to the success of this event!

Kira Bradshaw

Orcas Island