Volunteers gather to clean roadways, beaches, downtown Port St. Joe
Saturday was a day for volunteer clean-up crews as dozens of locals and visitors in the area gathered at two separate community clean-ups to help collect trash and debris.
The first gathered at 7 a.m. in downtown Port St. Joe, where about 15 people world for an hour cleaning the roadway, removing trash and helping clear debris that might block city drains.
Then, two hours later, a group of locals and regular visitors gathered under the pavilion at the Port St. Joe RV Resort to put on gloves and pick up garbage bags. Then, they headed across the street to gather litter from the side of 98 and the Highland View Beach.
“We have a lot of guests that come over here, and we just felt like it would be our responsibility to make sure that our section of the beach is clean for our guests and our community,” said the RV resort’s general manager Mike Roberts.
“We’re in it for the community,” said his wife and co-general manager Michell Roberts. “We like it here, and we want to help beautify it.”
Both groups of volunteers stated that future clean-up events were being planned.
Meet the Editor
Wendy Weitzel, The Star’s digital editor, joined the news outlet in August 2021, as a reporter covering primarily Gulf County.
Prior to then, she interned for Oklahoma-based news wire service Gaylord News and for Oklahoma City-based online newspaper NonDoc.com during her four years at the University of Oklahoma, from which she graduated in May with degrees in online journalism and political science.
While at OU, Weitzel was selected as Carnegie-Knight News21 Investigative Fellow among 30 top journalism students from around the country. She also was senior editor managing a 12-person newsroom in coordination with Oklahoma Watch, a non-profit news organization in eastern Oklahoma.