MLK Day Beach Clean Up

The kids spent part of their day off from school picking up plastic and other trash at the beach as part of the community service project we chose to honor and remember the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I’ve been talking with the kids about small changes we can make in our daily actions since I came back from India as part of my commitment to look beyond resolutions to the legacy I want to leave behind for future generations. It’s easy to dismiss small things like starting to bring my own reusable bottles with me, but when you add them up over a lifetime, they make an impact.

As far as the beach goes, 48 hours ago my kids didn’t have any interest in cleaning up trash at anyone’s beach!! My daughter let me know that sounded like the most boring way to spend her day off with me and my son huffed and puffed about not cleaning instead of playing. I figured it was easier to show than tell so I looked up a few videos on YouTube from clean ups where they saw other kids around their age which worked way better than anything I had to say on the subject. I was actually surprised at how much they wanted to do when we got to the beach and even turned it into a competition between the two of them to see who could find the most to clean up in between finding sea creatures and sea shells.

While we were there yesterday, a surfer came up to us and said he does a “5 minute clean up” before he gets out into the ocean and he helped explain to also be on the lookout for smaller plastics (microplastic) when they are playing in the sand during the summer because they are more easily eaten by fish and other animals we may consume later. Apparently we eat a the amount of plastic equal to a credit card a week from microplastics in our food and water. 😬😳 Who knew?!