76 sites | 1,302 volunteers | 1,462 bags of trash
St. Johns RIVERKEEPER, local governments, businesses and nonprofits came together between March 18 and Earth Day, April 22, to clean up the St. Johns River watershed. The first annual Great St. Johns River Cleanup, supported by Bronco Wild Fund, brought more than 1,300 volunteers together to collect over 29,000 pounds of trash!
“We are blown away by the support we received from six county governments and numerous business and nonprofit partners throughout the watershed during our first ever month-long Great St. Johns River Cleanup! We can’t wait to make this an annual, collaborative tradition and see how it grows over the years,” said Meredith Jespersen, development director for St. Johns RIVERKEEPER.
The St. Johns River watershed encompasses nearly 9,000 square miles, from Blue Cypress Lake near Vero Beach to the mouth of the river at Mayport – and citizens throughout the entire watershed showed up to make this event a success.
Volunteers cleaned 76 sites across Duval, Putnam, Orange, Seminole, St. Johns and Volusia Counties. Each county hosted their own official cleanups, and some volunteers chose to clean on their own in neighborhoods along the river and its tributaries. Businesses and nonprofits invited their team members to clean parks and boat ramps. Kayakers and paddle boarders drifted along shorelines and removed garbage that had already made its way into our waters.
Your Local Ford Dealers presented one lucky participant, a nurse from Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, with a $1,000 gift card for sharing her cleanup photo on Instagram!
“We’re proud to support the North Florida Ford dealers in their month-long effort with St. Johns Riverkeeper. This project, a recipient of a Bronco Wild Fund (BWF) grant, celebrated Earth Month by preserving a waterway that impacts recreation and people throughout the region. BWF is dedicated to preserving and stewarding public lands across the country through projects like the Great St. Johns River Cleanup,” stated Kelsey Gerken, Cause Marketing & Bronco Off-Roadeo Manager at Ford.
Visit StJohnsRiverCleanup.com to view all the cleanup results.
St. Johns RIVERKEEPER hopes that the Great St. Johns River Cleanup will significantly increase community awareness and thoughtfulness when it comes to each of our individual roles to keep the St. Johns and its tributaries clean and healthy for generations to come. Visit stjohnsriverkeeper.org/riverfriendly to learn more about how you can make a difference!