On March 29rd, from 9:30 to 12:00, AYLUS volunteers met up at Jones beach Energy and Nature Center. After a quick briefing with the leader, Micheal, AYLUS volunteers were split into groups of two and given a plastic bag with trash grabbers. The task at hand was picking up litter from the beach, especially the newly roped off area. As after this week, visitors will be prohibited from entering to protect a species of bird.
The weather was quite windy, and the waves were strong. AYLUS members found plastic cups, bottle caps, pieces of glass and other various pieces of trash littered on the beach. Some of the more notable finds included sunglasses, beach toys, towels and a paintbrush. All of these items were put into the provided plastic bags.
After two hours of clean up, the volunteers then were moved to the sand paths that led to the beach. They switched their plastic disposable gloves with gardening ones, and were instructed to weed out as much of the wheat they could that was obstructing the fence. For the next half hour AYLUS volunteers worked tirelessly bagging and cutting down wheat.
Due to the environmental help by AYLUS volunteers, they were able to make Jones beach a more enjoyable experience for all current and future visitors.
Volunteers: Jake Wu (3 hours), Bryan Fan (2.5 hours), Sunya Kong (2.5 hours), Erica Jiang (2.5 hours)