What a great start to the year it has been for Keep Brevard Beautiful and all of our wonderful volunteers! With the immense success of our Summer Series of 2018, Florida Today partnered with us again to create a whole new event to keep the fun going. The Winter Series covered three events through December and January. For the lucky volunteers who came to all three of the events we had a kayak to raffle off. The kayak had been donated by one of our very dedicated volunteers, Robbie Robinson.

Our Winter Series kicked off on December 15^th with a long walk starting at Paradise Beach. We made it two miles to Bicentennial Park where we were shuttled back to the starting point. Our volunteers collected 5 bags of micro-plastics along the way as well as a very rundown bicycle. We enjoyed two water stations, the first sponsored by Atkins and the second sponsored by Edible Arrangements. Gathering back at the Paradise Beach pavilion, everyone enjoyed Pizza provided by PizzaVola while a couple items were raffled off.

Coming into the New Year was exciting with our second event on January 5th. KBB ventured out to land we had never been before. Getting as much supplies as we could gather, we headed out to The Compound, a Palm Bay locals spot used for recreation and, unfortunately, illegal dumping. While there was plenty of litter thrown about to keep an idle hand busy, the big stuff is what filled our day. Volunteers found tires, couches, large yard items, and even a couple of hot tubs were reported. Due to the sheer volume and the limited time we were allowed we couldn’t gather everything, however we did take a good 6,270 lbs off to the dump, courtesy of the wonderful College Hunks Hauling Junk guys who donated their time and made several trips that day with their own dump truck. It was a hard day, but we finished up at the PizzaVola in West Melbourne where volunteers were happy to have a seat, get a drink and eat pizza while we did another door prize raffle. Edible Arrangements provided water for everyone and Port Authority as well as Atkins sent their own volunteers to lend a hand!

Our wrap up event on January 19^th was much awaited for. With the kayak in the eye of 16 volunteers who attended all three of the events, it was a day filled with anticipation! Gathering at 8AM at Kelly Park East in Merritt Island, we mapped out the safety instructions for everyone as well as the method of removing litter from the 528 Causeway. Port Authority had been a big help through the entire Winter Series Event and they again provided volunteers along with Atkins to help clean. The 528 Causeway is one of the most important roads in Brevard due to it bringing in the Orlando tourists to our own beautiful shoreline either for sunbathing, cruising, or visiting the Kennedy Space Center. But keeping it clean is important for the simple reason that it keeps our community proud of where we live and as the volunteers banded together that morning to collect the litter strewn everywhere, there was definitely a sense of togetherness.

Our cleanup that morning was a total of 1800 lbs of trash again taken to the dump by the College Hunks Hauling Junk, and around 11:00 everyone made their way out to Jetty Park (free admission provided by the Port Authority) and to the Fishlips Pavilion where we enjoyed a wonderful buffet. Then as everybody finished up, we did our last door prize raffle, and then the raffle that 16 very eager people had been waiting for. The green/yellow kayak sat in front, ready to be given away and the numbers on the blue raffle ticket were called. Glenn Arnold, one of our new volunteers who had only ever been to the three Winter Series events, went home with a brand new kayak! We were very excited for his luck in getting such a great prize, we even encouraged him to come out to our Summer Series kayak cleanups to show off what he had won! Of course, that’s just what we want at Keep Brevard Beautiful, happy volunteers who get to be a part of making their county beautiful and are eager to come back out to help some more!

Thank you again to everyone for such a successful Series! We look forward to seeing you again soon!

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