TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Spending the Fourth of July weekend by the water was part of Jordan Jones\u2019 plans, but he wasn\u2019t there to lay out on the sand.<\/p>\n
This is his first time volunteering with Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful for its After the 4th Cleanup.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my first time actually on Ben T. Davis Beach. I\u2019ve driven past a thousand times before. I\u2019ve just not actually been here to see what it\u2019s like,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIt was the first opportunity to volunteer, so I really wanted to be a part of it. I love being on the beaches, so I think giving back and just being able to keep this area clean was something that I felt very passionately about.\u201d<\/p>\n
All the supplies, like trash bags and gloves, were provided for the cleanup by Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we didn\u2019t have the volunteers help us do what we do, I don\u2019t think we would have beautiful spaces. And if we weren\u2019t able to do these things, it wouldn\u2019t be as nice and clean, not just for us, but the wildlife we have.\u201d said Kristina Moreta, the executive director of Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful.<\/p>\n
The Independence Day cleanup makes a big difference for Parks and Recreation workers along with the wildlife that are left with mountains of trash.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrash just flying out or people are just leaving it where they\u2019ve parked or sat. And it\u2019s a little sad, but it\u2019s a good day,\u201d Moreta added.<\/p>\n
There were some good finds for Jones as he picked up some interesting leftovers from the long weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a Croc in here,\u201d Jones mentioned.<\/p>\n
He and around a dozen other volunteers picked through boxes of fireworks and overflowing trash cans.<\/p>\n
Jones hopes to make this cleanup event an annual tradition on his holiday weekend<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to go out, but you can go out and soak it up in the morning and give back to your community as well. So for me, I feel like it creates that balance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Spending the Fourth of July weekend by the water was part of Jordan Jones\u2019 plans,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[90888,1563,76223,276,115,202,204,203,199,201,200,135],"class_list":["post-330148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-claire-alfree","tag-environment","tag-fourth-of-july","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-news","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}