ROCKLAND — Despite the blustery, chilly and rainy weather approximately 50 hardy volunteers turned out for the city’s Beach Clean-Up Saturday, May 25. Volunteers gathered at Rockland’s City Hall at 8:30 a.m. to divide into teams, pick up T-shirts and enjoy a hot cup of coffee before heading out to the city’s three beaches that would benefit from their efforts.

The event was organized by Rockland Mayor Will Clayton and promoted through the city with appeals for volunteers made through the Rockland City Council meetings.

“We actually had one crew that wanted to get out early and at it," said Clayton.  "Jake Barber took a group of around 20 people out around 7:30 this morning. He organized a number of churches and even has about four inmates from the Knox County Jail he got on a work release to help out. We’re not just looking for small items today, but what I call navigational hazards, as well — big pieces of driftwood, piles of rope, bottles, not just things that get on the beach, but things that can get out into the harbor.”

Sponsors for the event were the Chowder House, Samoset Resort, Garden Island Cleaners, Thomaston Recycling and E. L. Spear, Inc. The timing was perfect to make the beaches look good for the Memorial Day weekend. This was Clayton's first year of personally participating in a beach clean-up.

“I’m not sure if the city itself has done it in the past,” said Clayton. “I know there have been small groups that have done it in the past, I really wanted to do this to show the cohesion and the support of both the city and citizens. I not only would like to see this become a yearly event, I expect it to become a yearly event.”

Rockland’s Fire Chief Charles Jordan took out a crew of five firefighters and emergency medicine providers to help with the clean-up.

“I think we’ll enjoy it and we should get a lot of work done today, getting up anything that doesn’t belong on the beaches,” he said. “We obviously look at ourselves as a big part of the community and we hope the community looks at us as part of it, too, other than providing just fire and EMS services. We’re very pleased to be able to just help out today.”

Rockland City Councilor Larry Pritchett said: “Our waterfront is a big part of our economy and it’s a good thing to see people come out at the beginning of the season to help get rid of the winter that tried us. In other towns it’s a yearly event and I think we’ll see how it goes this time. We’ll certainly make an effort to do it again.”

Jake Barbour took on an embankment with a group of 20 people, clearing trash, brush and weeds from Sandy Beach. Jake Barbour, Inc., or JBI, is a full-service earthwork contractor based in Owls Head.  That group was called Christians In Action, from Grace Bible.

“There are four or five different churches that are represented here,” said Babour. “We also go in and talk to people at the jail about their alcohol and drug problems and addictions. That’s how we managed to get some people from Knox County out here today to help."

Gordon Page of the Rockland Kiwanis’s club, had a dozen members, including students from the Key Club of Ocean Side East High School. He said his group felt the work was important and they were happy to help out the city.

Marilyn Trask was at the Lighthouse Beach with members of the Coast Guard. She said their group collected a lot of driftwood, big pieces that looked like fence posts off the beach. She felt there could probably be a beach clean-up every day. She also commented that members of the Coast Guard were a great bunch of people to work with.

At the end, all the volunteers were treated to lunch at the city’s Lighthouse Museum. Mayor Clayton expressed appreciation for the entire effort.

“It was better than expected, especially with the weather we had,” said Clayton. “It was just absolutely fantastic. I can’t estimate how much trash we collected yet because we just make piles and the public works trucks come around and collect them; but volunteer-wise I was able to count 47. It was good to see the city and residents working together, it was amazing.”