Walton County, Fla. ? (date) ? The award-winning Beaches of South Walton are recognized as some of the cleanest most admired beaches in the nation. To ensure that the beaches remain pristine join the world-wide effort to clean the coast during International Coastal Cleanup on Saturday, September 16 from 8 a.m. ? 10 a.m. The first step toward cleaner coasts starts by joining the Coastal Cleanup. Coastal Cleanup is an international program sponsored by the Ocean Conservancy engaging people to remove trash and debris from the world?s beaches and waterways, to identify the sources of debris, and to change the behaviors that cause pollution. Locally sponsored by the Walton County Tourist Development Council (WCTDC) and in partnership with Walton County Schools, Walton County 4-H Club and Okaloosa-Walton College AmeriCorps volunteers, this program encourages stewardship of the county?s precious coastal area. This year?s event will have six main clean-up sites including Inlet Beach Regional Access, Blue Mountain Regional Beach Access, Dune Allen Regional Beach Access, Ed Walline Regional Beach Access, Grayton Beach Access and Miramar Beach Regional Access on the western side of Pompano Joe's. Complimentary cleanup supplies, bottled water and Coastal Cleanup T-shirts will be provided at each access. Children activities will be held at the Ed Walline and Grayton Beach accesses provided by AmeriCorps and Walton County 4-H. For more than 20 years, Coastal Cleanup has been a major event in data collection and education. At each site the collected debris is cataloged, then sent to the Ocean Conservancy and used for studies concerning the welfare of the nation?s coastline. During last year?s cleanup, over 450,000 volunteers removed 8.2 million pounds of debris from 18,000 miles of coasts, spanning 74 nations. For more information please contact Tiffany McCaskill, WCTDC new product development manager at (850) 267-1216 / [email]tmccaskill@beachesofsouthwalton.com[/email] or visit [url]www.oceanconservancy.org[/url]
