8th annual coastal cleanup

SATURDAY, September 16, 2023

Join us for the 8th annual Coastal Cleanup here in Gloucester, hosted by Community Church of East Gloucester! We believe that being disciples of Jesus means we care for our city, our neighbors, and God’s creation as a whole. We all know that one of the great blessings we have in Gloucester is the incredible coastline and a number of amazing beaches. One clear and tangible way to honor Jesus — and even to live out the gospel — is to be involved in caring for the world God has made. This October, we’re joining with thousands of others across the United States and around the globe to collect trash and debris from our coastlines. You don’t have to be a part of our church to join us! This kind of event allows us to partner with our neighbors and our city to work towards the common goal of making Gloucester an even better place to live!

WHAT IS THE COASTAL CLEANUP?

The Coastal Cleanup event organizes groups of people to scatter across the city of Gloucester to collect garbage, debris, and waste materials that wash up on shore or that exist in these coastal areas. We organize groups to cover several of the beaches here in Gloucester. This is part of a larger effort across the state, the country, and around the world! As we gather trash, we’ll be keeping track of what we collect with a special CoastSweep app. This app will forward the data through the Massachusetts' CoastSweep program, and the data eventually goes to Ocean Conservancy — a multinational organization that tracks debris patterns, implements environmental policies, and advocate for environmental stewardship with governments across the globe.

All the information. you need to get started can be found below! We would love for you to join us for the 8th Annual Coastal Cleanup hosted by Community Church!

THE SIX STEPS TO SIGN UP

STEP 1:
REVIEW GUIDELINES

For this cleanup, each group that participates should be a single household or bubble of people who are quaran-teaming together. It is important for every group to review the state guidelines for participating in the Coastal Cleanup. These guidelines are available on the Massachusetts website. We have provided a link below.

review guidelines

Step 2:
GROUP Sign Up

Have the leader of your group register for a specific beach location, date of cleanup, size of group, and whether or not you would like gloves and trash bags (October 10 only). This is a registration for this particular Coastal Cleanup event with Community Church. Beaches are available on a first come, first served basis. After you signup as a group, each individual in your group must complete step 3.

STEP 3:
COASTSWEEP RELEASE

Each individual participant in your Coastal Cleanup crew MUST fill out a Coastsweep Volunteer Release Form with the state of Massachusetts. Here is a link to this waiver, and you can copy the link provided below and email it to the rest of the people in your crew for them to fill out as well. Please fill in “Community Church of East Gloucester” in the Name of Cleanup Organizer field.

INDIVIDUAL WAIVER

Copy and send this link to your crew:
https://www.mass.gov/forms/coastsweep-volunteer-release-form
Ensure they use “Community Church of East Gloucester” on their forms as well.

Step 4:
DowNload the APP

Ocean Conservancy has developed an app for managing your own cleanups — from your own mobile device. You will need to download and use this app in order to collect data, capture pictures, and keep the church in the loop on your cleanup with friends and family.

Download Clean Swell App

As you load the app, please enter “CCEG” as the cleanup organizer, so that we can track our efforts and report back to you on the trash and debris we all collected!

Step 5:
Prep for Cleanup

Prior to the cleanup you will need to make sure you and your group will be ready with materials, guidelines, and all the tools necessary for a great cleanup. Visit the Preparing for Cleanup page on the Coast Sweep website here. If you signed up to participate on the October 10 date, and indicated you wanted gloves and bags to be provided, you can pick up your materials at the church at 9:00 am that morning.

Preparing for a cleanup

directions to the church

Step 6:
ClEanup!

We’d encourage most groups to plan their cleanups for Saturday October 10th between 9am-12noon. However, we are allowing groups to schedule their cleanups for anytime from the 10th through the end of October. If you do hold your cleanup on October 10, you can come back to the church with your trash and debris, where we will have a weigh station set up and you can dispose of it in the dumpster or recycling bins. We will need to maintain social distancing if multiple groups arrive back at the church at the same time.

that’s all there is to it!

Thanks for being willing to participate in this effort to care for our city, to care for our planet, and to care for this world that God has made and entrusted to our care. If you have any questions about this cleanup, or about the church, or even about Jesus, don’t hesitate to contact us using the form linked below!

contact us