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In just under a year, Gasparilla Clean Team has hosted three cleanups across Tampa neighborhoods including Davis Islands, Seminole Heights (pictured) and Tampa Heights. Credit: c\/o Gasparilla Clean Team<\/p>\nIn just under a year, Gasparilla Clean Team has hosted three cleanups across Tampa neighborhoods including Davis Islands, Seminole Heights (pictured) and Tampa Heights. Credit: c\/o Gasparilla Clean Team<\/p>\n
For most Tampa Bay residents, Gasparilla festivities start with drinks, beads and other items that often end up as trash. For some, like Wesley Roderick, a good party starts with trash.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Gasparilla Clean Team<\/a> founder leads roughly 200 volunteers on March 1 in the team\u2019s biggest cleanup yet, fanning out across North Hyde Park with garbage bags in hand, tidying streets and sidewalks near Willa\u2019s Provisions.<\/p>\n Sponsored by Pineapple Insurance with support from Leonard Contractors, Supernatural Food & Wine and Elevated Embers, the event reflects what Roderick described as a growing vision for how future cleanups will look.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to be the festival at the end of all the Gasparilla festivals,\u201d said Roderick. \u201cAfter everybody\u2019s done the partying, we\u2019ll be the one that comes in and just cleans up.\u201d<\/p>\n Gasparilla Clean Team began last year as a loose, quarterly effort among friends and local business owners, who wanted to make neighborhood cleanups feel less like an obligation and more like a social gathering.<\/p>\n Roderick\u2014the owner of Tampa sandwich shop Supernatural Food & Wine<\/a>, and holder of a CL byline<\/a>\u2014launched the project alongside his close friends, including Nate Hammond, owner of mobile sauna company Elevated Embers. The idea took shape during an early-morning workout on Davis Islands Beach, when the amount of trash around them became impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tRELATED CONTENT<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \u201cI just looked around and I was like, this is super shitty,\u201d Roderick said. \u201cThere\u2019s just garbage everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather than organizing a traditional cleanup, they decided to rework the model. Volunteers would still pick up trash\u2014but they\u2019d also be rewarded with food, workouts, cold plunges, music and time to hang out afterward.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we can do better than a T-shirt and a pat on the back,\u201d Roderick said. \u201cWhen people come out, it\u2019s like, yeah, we\u2019re gonna do this, and we\u2019re gonna have a fun time. We\u2019re gonna actually enjoy ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n That approach has helped the group gain momentum quickly. In just under a year, Gasparilla Clean Team has hosted three cleanups across Tampa neighborhoods including Davis Islands, Seminole Heights and Tampa Heights. At its most recent event, about 20 to 25 volunteers picked up nearly 700 pounds of trash in roughly an hour. Earlier cleanups yielded between 400 and 500 pounds.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s kind of wild, to be honest with you,\u201d Roderick said. \u201cYou see some of it and you\u2019re like, that\u2019s amazing that that\u2019s just under a bush somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n The March cleanup will be the group\u2019s fourth overall and its largest to date, with Willa\u2019s Provisions\u2014near the corner of N Rome Avenue and W Fig Street\u2014serving as a home base before volunteers spread out through the surrounding area.<\/p>\n Participation is capped, and volunteers sign up through the Gasparilla Clean Team\u2019s Instagram, where they\u2019re labeled as \u201cVIPs\u201d\u2014Volunteer Impact Partners. Once someone attends an event, they\u2019re given priority access to future cleanups.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a party,\u201d Roderick said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just, \u2018Come clean up.\u2019 It\u2019s, \u2018Come party\u2014clean up beforehand.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n While Roderick is often the most visible organizer, he consistently frames the project as a shared effort. \u201cIf I\u2019m doing meaningful things, I want to be doing them with people I love and admire,\u201d Roderick said<\/p>\n Pineapple Insurance founder Greg Tomlin supports supplies, logistics and overall production. Leonard Contractors helps cover major infrastructure needs like dumpsters, while Supernatural Food & Wine and Elevated Embers, along with other local businesses like Gaze Hot Yoga and Spaddy\u2019s Coffee, contribute food and fun.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve been critical,\u201d Roderick said of Pineapple Insurance. \u201cWithout them, we would\u2019ve figured it out, but it wouldn\u2019t have been nearly as sexy. And it would\u2019ve all come out of pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n Roderick, who has built a strong following through his restaurant\u2019s run club and community events, sees the cleanups as an extension of the same people-first philosophy.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a little less of a boundary between who is firmly a customer and who is my friend,\u201d he said.\u201cI definitely enjoy life much more when I approach it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking ahead, the Clean Team plans to continue hosting one major cleanup each year, with the possibility of smaller events throughout the year. Long-term ideas include river cleanups and even incorporating live music\u2014visions that Roderick said sound ambitious but align with the group\u2019s goals.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n For now, the focus is March 1: one neighborhood, a few hundred volunteers, and a few hundred pounds of trash removed from Tampa streets, all powered by the idea that community work doesn\u2019t have to feel like work at all.<\/p>\n Pitch in to help make the Tampa Bay Journalism Project a success.<\/a><\/p>\n Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.<\/a><\/p>\n Follow us:\u00a0Google News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NewsBreak<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Reddit<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>|\u00a0BlueSky<\/a><\/p>\n This article appears in Jan. 15 \u2013 21, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n \t
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While Wesley Roderick is often the most visible Gasparilla Clean Team organizer, he consistently frames the project as a shared effort. Credit: c\/o Gasparilla Clean Team<\/p>\n