Innovation is applied to a campaign being launched by the Friends of Wesley Lake on Saturday.
The group’s annual fall cleanup will feature a Hold On To Your Butt campaign, aimed at educating cigarette smokers on the harms of throwing the most littered item in the world on city streets.
“Our focus is always on the Lake and the surrounding grounds, but we are also taking it to the Cookman Avenue business district area to raise awareness about discarded cigarette butts, and the danger they pose to our waterways and wildlife,” member Kieth Fiori said in a written statement.
The group wants residents and visitors to be aware that every street within the 1.4 square mile community is considered waterfront property.
“When rain falls, water that does not soak into the ground becomes runoff,” Fiori said. “A cigarette butt, which is thrown out the window of a vehicle or dropped on the ground and not disposed of properly, is carried away by runoff. This runoff enters a storm drain in the streets downtown and ends up in Wesley Lake. Wildlife ingesting cigarette butts can result in strangulation, starvation, nicotine poisoning, and death.”
The 9 am to noon Saturday fall cleanup asks the community, businesses and organizations to participate in this friendly competition of collecting the most butts. Forms will be provided to track the collection.
The event is sponsored by the Surfrider Foundation: Jersey Shore Chapter, who will be accepting donations in support of the Bahamas Relief Drive, and Renova Environmental Services. The Asbury Park Environmental and Shade Tree Commission collecting butts at city gardens and plantings.
The 9 am to noon Saturday Wesley Lake Fall Cleanup will kick-off at the footbridge across from the Asbury Park Festhalle and Biergarten, located at 527 Lake Ave. Organizers encourage participants to wear weather appropriate clothing. Gloves, garbage bags, water, and some tools will be provided but feel free to bring rakes, long pole nets, pickers and any other cleanup sundry. The goal will be to remove all garbage/debris and to clean up the landscape and footbridges surrounding Wesley Lake. Plans are to lower the water level for those who want to bring a kayak or canoe to help clear the lake.
Click here for more information on the Friends of Wesley Lake.
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