Folly Green Team takes over beach sweeps, local students offer a helping hand
By Lorne Chambers | Editor
The task of handling the many different beach sweeps that take place on Folly every year could not be in better hands than with the Folly Beach Green Team, a local volunteer-based environmental group. Chaired by City Councilmember Teresa Marshall, the Green Team has tackled a host of environmentally-friendly initiatives on Folly, including starting the community garden, installing water bottle refill stations, and cigarette cannons at beach accesses.
According to Marshall, the City of Folly Beach has asked the Green Team to handle the organizing of beach sweeps and beach access adoptions this year, so anyone wanting to organize a beach sweep can now go through the Folly Green Team rather than the city directly.
The first major sweep of the year took place on Saturday, March 25, when about 75 3rd, 4th, and 5th students from James Island Elementary School came out to pick up litter. “Those kids were absolutely phenomenal. They were all involved,” said Marshall, who was a former educator before serving on Folly Beach City Council and heading up the Folly Green Team. “They all carried their buckets, there were no plastic bags on the beach!”
The school also adopted the beach access point at 3rd block east. According to Marshall, beach access adoptions require that the organization maintain the area by picking up litter regularly and putting trash in the trash bins and recyclable materials in the recycle bins. They are not required to empty out the cigarette cannons. Another member of the Folly Green team does that.
For more information about adopting beach access points or hosting a beach sweep, contact the Folly Green Team by visiting its website at www.gofollygreen.com.
