Maria Bray Crew Get Down and Dirty for Community
Story by BM2 Brian Cross, CGC Maria Bray, Jacksonville, Fla.
JACKSONVILLE Fla. -- Coast Guard Cutter Maria Bray crewmembers are the proud new owners of a 2.2 mile stretch of highway on Beach Boulevard here. The crew voted late last fall to become part of the Florida Department of Transportation's, Adopt-A-Highway program. The program originally began in 1985 in Texas and has since grown to a membership of more than 90,000 groups that volunteer on highways all over the United States.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Crewmembers of the Coast Guard Cutter Maria Bray clean up a section of Beach Boulevard. The crew of the Maria Bray are participating in the Adopt-A-Highway Program. U.S. Coast Guard photograph courtesy of the USCGC Maria Bray.
The ship's force agreed that it would be a very good way to do their part in helping to keep Jacksonville a nice place to live while giving back to the community. Under the guidelines of the Adopt-A-Highway program the crew will remove litter on its stretch of highway once or twice a month as the Maria Bray's operations schedule allows.
The crew's first pick-up day was February 24, and it was a huge success. The crew, working on both the north and south side of Beach Boulevard, collected more than 13, 25-galllon trash bags of litter in a few hours. It gave the crew a great opportunity to work with people from different departments and also the chance to get out, do something new and have some fun.
Many of the crew were really surprised at how much fun they had picking up trash. It may have been the day off work, or the "nifty trash grabber," or the work group challenges of who could find the craziest stuff, but the entire crew really had a good time. The crew ended its clean-up at Sneakers Bar & Grill with a great lunch, a few laughs and plenty of stories from everyone on the treasures they had found along Beach Boulevard. Of course some of the treasures were better than others. The first clean up day was extremely memorable and without a doubt the others will be just as great a success.
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