Two Hamptons Community Cleanups To Take Place On Earth Day

The yearly community effort to clean up our beautiful outdoors is coming up again! The Great East End Clean-Up, which will tackle tidying up public areas throughout all of Southampton Town, is set to take place on Saturday, April 22 and Sunday, April 23.

The annual project has been wildly successful in the past. Last year alone, there were over 750 volunteers who united to remove over 60 tons of litter and debris. Among those tons of trash, 3.5 tons of metal was sorted for recycling to be repurposed for community use.

“The Great East End Clean Up has become an annual tradition that many of our residents look forward to and I am excited to continue this annual event for our Town and to be joining the Moriches Bay Project,” said Councilwoman Christine P. Scalera, who will be joining the Moriches Bay Project and 20 other volunteers that have already committed to cleaning up the bays and beachfronts of the Westhampton Dunes.

Project coordinators are expecting another great turnout for this year’s event. To participate, all volunteers need to do is pick an area of public property such as a park, beach, trail, or roadside that is in need of cleaning and the Town will provide garbage bags and disposal passes for the Town recycling centers.

To register for the Great East End Clean Up, contact Rick Hodgson at 631-283-5210 or visit www.southamptontownny.gov.

Additionally, The Great Montauk Cleanup, organized by Concerned Citizens of Montauk (CCOM), will be held on Saturday, April 22, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., with a rain date of Saturday, April 29.

CCOM has teamed up with several local organizations, including Montauk Chamber of Commerce, Camp Soul Grow, Ditch Plains Association, EH Town Litter Committee, EH Trail Preservation Society, Group for the East End, Imagination Nature, Mickey’s Carting, Montauk Beach Property Owners Association, Montauk Brewing Co., Montauk Oceans Institute, Montauk Playhouse, Montauk School Student Council, Montauk United, Montauk Youth, Peconic Estuary Program, Surfrider Foundation and Third House Nature Center, to ensure that the beaches of Montauk return to their pristine, trash free state.

“Earth Day is a very significant day for CCOM because our organization was founded on Earth Day in 1970 – 47 years ago! We are very proud that this community clean-up has been a tradition of ours for so long,” explained Danielle Friscia, Concerned Citizens of Montauk’s Director of Operations. “This year’s Great Montauk Cleanup has nineteen participating local organizations and we are hoping it will be our most successful cleanup to date.”

Volunteers should meet at the Kirk Park Parking Lot (next to the Montauk IGA) where they can pick up bags and gloves. Once they have the necessary supplies, they can head off in search of Montauk beaches, parks or anywhere that needs cleaning. CCOM expects this year’s event to be its biggest yet.

“Be sure to stop by the, ‘Save the Lake – Save the Pond’ table to sign up to become a clean water steward and to say hi to our new environmental advocate, Kate Rossi-Snook,” added Friscia.

For more information about The Great Montauk Cleanup, call 631-238-5720 or visit www.preservemontauk.org.