CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The beach south of Bob Hall Pier has been closed to traffic ever since hurricane Hanna washed up trash and debris.
This weekend, volunteers are planning a major clean up of the area.
Members of the Flour Bluff Padre Island 4H club are planning a two and a half-mile beach clean up that will take place south of Bob Hall Pier to help the environment and to try and get that section of the beach reopened.
Flour Bluff Padre Island 4H club member, Julian Gilliam was inspired to organize a beach cleanup after Director of coastal parks, Scott Cross took her for a drive and showed her just how bad things were.
“There was trash everywhere a lot of small pieces with turtle bites in it so I know it’s been affecting the marine life,” said President of Flour Bluff Padre Island 4H club Julian Gilliam.
Gilliam knew she would need a lot of help to get the job done so she reached out to several organizations.
“I asked some kids from Kleberg county, Kirby Owens, an Ilan Escobedo. They are helping me get kids from their side of the county to come down and help clean the beach,” said Gilliam.
Transportation will be provided this Saturday at 8:45 am in the morning and they already have about 100 volunteers signed up.
“You do need to wear a mask if you are planning on riding on the flatbed trailers. We will have transportation out there and since we are going to be pretty close you do need to be wearing a mask. But once everybody gets on the beach you can take the mask off but you do need to social distance,” said Gilliam.
Julian has lived here her whole life and says she’s eager to roll up her sleeves, to hopefully enjoy that area of the beach once its all cleaned up and reopened.
“To see a lot of trash and not a lot of people on the beach you know it is really sad. So, I am really excited just to get the whole community together to help clean the beach,” said Gilliam.
The event is Saturday, August 22, 2020, and it starts at 8:45 am. They encourage that you were closed-toe shoes, bring work gloves and a mask.