A Florida beach once overrun by out-of-control spring-breakers found God on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Nearly 400 people packed the bandshell on Daytona Beach for a Catholic Easter service just steps from the shoreline where drunken \u201ctakeover\u201d mobs sparked violence and mass arrests days earlier.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Attendees praised Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood for his no-nonsense cleanup \u2014 and suggested that raucous spring-breakers <\/a>should do some praying themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nearly 400 worshippers pack the Daytona Beach Bandshell for a Catholic service Easter Sunday, just steps away from where drunken spring-break debauchery filled the sand days earlier. Lone Pine Press for NY Post<\/p>\n \u201cRight here, what we just celebrated, was just a large group of people who are wanting to do the right thing,\u201d said Jim Lally, a 63-year-old snowbird from the Poconos who winters in Daytona, to The Post.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just nice to have a community come together and do for others.\u201d<\/p>\n As for the spring breakers, \u201cThe kids come in and act unruly, and I think it\u2019s more self-centered,\u201d Lally said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not thinking for the community as a whole. So this is just wonderful,\u201d he said, gesturing to the outdoor stage where an Our Lady of Lourdes pastor delivered a sermon.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Lally called the recent chaos \u201cunfortunate,\u201d and said the wild young partiers could use some perspective.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some Florida hot spots have seen spring breaks go wild this year. TikTok\/wayofkaywil<\/p>\n At least once municipality cracked down on over-the-top twerking. Christopher Oquendo<\/p>\n \u201cYou throw those same kids into an environment like what we just saw [during Sunday\u2019s service and] \u2026 I think their behaviors would be a bit different. So I encourage them to wake up during family time instead of after midnight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But he also added of the worst offenders, \u201cThere\u2019s a handful of spring breakers that are just complete idiots, and Mike Chitwood should lock \u2018em up and ban \u2018em from the city.<\/p>\n \u201cI just don\u2019t wanna see it,\u201d Lally said.\u00a0<\/p>\n His wife, Becky, 63, said this year\u2019s spring-break chaos was \u201cway worse\u201d than in years past \u2014 fueled partly by social media-promoted mobbed \u201ctakeover events.\u201d\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThere should be a consequence if they\u2019re going to come to our beautiful beach city and ruin it and destroy it, so I\u2019m happy with what Mr. Chitwood does,\u201d she said, referring to the sheriff\u2019s initiative to fine the online promoters behind the unruly gatherings.\u00a0<\/p>\n Chitwood announced last month that his office had already sent out two cease-and-desist letters to such offenders.\u00a0<\/p>\n Authorities have been praised by residents for doing \u201ca remarkable job\u201d restoring order. Christopher Oquendo<\/p>\n \u201cIf you promote an unsanctioned event and we incur costs \u2014 police, fire, EMS and trash clean-up \u2013 you are responsible for the cost of that event,\u201d he explained during a news conference<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Chitwood also implemented a party quarantine zone, with doubled fines for citations and put strict limits on gathering sizes after a \u201ctakeover\u201d event resulted in more than 100 arrests, medical calls and weapons seizures<\/a> during the first weekend of spring break.\u00a0<\/p>\n