Beach Responsibly Project founders wants to clean up Treasure Island

TREASURE ISLAND, Fla. — All the visitors to Tampa Bay area beaches could lead to a big beach cleanup effort after Fourth of July festivities as a small business in St. Petersburg is having a cleanup event on Saturday morning in Treasure Island to try and help in those efforts.

The Beach Responsibly Project non-profit organization started as an off shoot of Chris McCormick’s beach lifestyle business — The Sandbar Clothing Company.

The headquarters are in downtown St. Pete.

However, this weekend McCormick and his girlfriend Shannon Estes-Larkin, who also helps run The Beach Responsibly Project, will be at the beach where more volunteers are needed to participate in the beach cleanup event.

The couple can be found picking up trash at Treasure Island Beach. On one particular morning, they grabbed their gear of trash picker devices and bags to put what they collect in the sand.

McCormick and Estes-Larkin started their day in Treasure Island as usual. They live right on the beach and make it their mission to keep it clean.

They hope others join them this Saturday.

“Two days after the Fourth of July, it’s usually a pretty trashy day,” said McCormick.

The Beach Responsibly Project cleanup effort will get underway at about 8 a.m. The meeting spot is at the Treasure Island public parking on 104th Avenue and Gulf Boulevard.

“I don’t think it’s anything that people do on purpose, but things get left behind,” said McCormick.

From towels to typical trash, they couple even picked up beach toys left behind.

However, not everything that gets collected ends up in a dumpster.

“We separate anything that needs to be separated,” McCormick said.

“Recyclables from stuff that can actually be disposed of and then kind of go from there,” Estes-Larkin added.

The event hopes to get more people involved in future beach cleanups.

“I know it’s like a very popular spot for not only visitors but for our own communities too,” said Estes-Larkin. “So, it’s really important to keep our beaches clean and to just make sure that we’re doing our part to be a part of that.”

McCormick said if the event is a success, they would like to expand into other locations to do beach cleanups.

As the saying goes, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.

For McCormick and Estes-Larkin, they just like keeping Treasure Island clean.