More than 300 Realtors, friends, family members and others gathered at eight different clean-up sites along the St. Johns River on July 8 to take part in the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors’ (NEFAR) third annual Clean-up Northeast Florida Waterways event.
This year’s event invited volunteers from the community to work alongside NEFAR members to remove tons of garbage and litter from the shoreline of the St. Johns River between Mayport and Palatka.
In all, more than 3,300 pounds of trash and debris were collected and disposed of.
The event was NEFAR’s collective contribution to Florida Realtors’ month-long Clean-up Florida’s Waterways initiative, which encourages Florida Realtors to clean up lakes, beaches, rivers, creeks and streams throughout the Sunshine State during the month of July.
Debris removed from the river’s shores included tires, an automobile bumper, a baby doll, sleeping bags, tarps, old buoys, Styrofoam cups and water bottles. JDog Junk Removal & Hauling collected the trash from all the clean-up sites.
Organizers are in the process of applying for permits to remove a derelict sailboat from the river near the Lions Club Boat ramp, said Mark Feagle, a NEFAR member who also serves as president of the Northeast Florida Coastal Conservation Association.
“If it can be removed, we will have met our goal of removing 10 tons of trash from the St. Johns River in Northeast Florida,” he said.
More than 150 volunteers celebrated their hard work during two four-hour afterparties hosted by the NEFAR Community Affairs Task Force at the NEFAR Resource Center on Deercreek Club Road in Jacksonville and at the Lighthouse Grill and Captains Cove Bar at the Crystal Cove Marina in Palatka.
During the afterparty at NEFAR, $270 was raised from drawings for prizes donated by the Coastal Conservation Association. Extra money raised from the event went to NEFAR’s Charitable Foundation and was earmarked for NEFAR’s Oyster Bar, a University of North Florida river restoration project done in conjunction with the Coastal Conservation Association.
This year’s event was considerably larger in scope and better attended than last year’s.
“This was the largest turnout we’ve ever had,” said Feagle. “It is our hope that we can expand it even further next year.”
