Thursday's "Beach Clean-Up" - by Chelsea Mathis

Thursday morning Max, Emily, and I trekked over to the Biloxi Town Green, an oasis in a desert of debris, to help out with the “Beach Clean-Up.” What we found after Pastor Sue dropped us off was a freshly sodded park with a grandstand and a brand new shoe fly. (A shoe fly, for all us Northern folk, is a deck wrapped around a tree.) We sat through an hour of speeches from local officials, like the Biloxi City Mayor and national representatives of the Keep America Beautiful program. It turned out that this ceremony was not a beach clean-up but the national kick-off for the Keep America Beautiful campaign for 2006. Several TV cameras and assorted press were filming and documenting the event. An overly chipper blonde woman promised us all kinds of freebies; from chewing gum to donuts to t-shirts, work gloves, and lunch, thanks to the several national sponsors whose logos were plastered all over the site. The Biloxi High School Marching Band led us in the National Anthem and paraded the crowds across the street where we were to pick up our supplies. Once we crossed the street, there were the usual odds and ends of donated free food, like cookies, crackers, and Gatorade. Everything was a little chaotic and disorganized from that point forward. We stood around waiting for nearly 20 minutes without instruction about what to do or where to go. Eventually, we gave up and crossed back to the other side of the street in hopes of finding a task appropriate for our skill level.

As soon as we stepped foot on the jigsaw puzzle of sodden lawn, the site director came up to us and started spouting off everything that needed to be done in that area. Max, Emily and I managed to find some shovels and we started digging holes to plant more shrubs around the shoe fly. Well, the dirt was packed clay and digging a hole proved quite a challenge. As we were struggling through the tough soil, a camera crew from Troybilt showed up and started videotaping Emily and me. Another man with the Associated Press snapped several pictures and even asked us for our names and hometowns. At the same time, we were getting flooded with more volunteers who wanted to take a stab at digging a hole. Eventually, the small garden we were working on was filled with nearly 15 people; however, there were not enough shovels, wheelbarrows, top soil or mulch, and we felt completely useless. It wasn’t long before the press caught wind of a third grade class mulching flowerbeds just a few yards from us and left us for more interesting subjects. We called a White Cap Society meeting and decided our green thumbs weren’t so green and we’d rather grab a few Glad Force Flex trash bags and walk along I-90 and pick up garbage (Glad is a national sponsor of the Keep America Beautiful Campaign.) We picked up a few remnants of the Mardi Gras parade but found that the piles of garbage that lined the street were a little bit too much for us to handle. Another White Cap Society meeting was called and this time we decided to throw in the towel and call for a ride anywhere but there. Our friend Doreen, a fellow volunteer at Bethel, came to save the day. All was not lost; we went to the distribution center and worked for the afternoon, filling food requests, carrying the supplies to patrons’ cars and stocking the tables of the tent.

- Chelsea Mathis

P. S. To see Chelsea and Emily in action, go to: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/photos/W/WXS11503030046.html?SITE=CODER&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT