TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The Gasparilla festivities aren’t over just yet.
From the Knight parade to the Gasparilla Distance Classic, there’s much more to come.
But first, it’s time to clean up.
“[I’ve got] about half a bag,” volunteer Sheryce Andrews said after cleaning for about 25 minutes.
Andrews and her daughter, Londyn, spent their morning picking up beads, bottle caps, and plastic along Bayshore Boulevard.
“I have to do it for school, and I just wanted to help out in my community,” Londyn responded.
As for your unwanted beads, you can drop them off at Fred Ball Park, Bern’s Park, Kate Jackson Park and Bank of America through May.
They will go to the MacDonald training center.
“They repurpose them, they clean them, they put them back together, and the ones that aren’t broken, they sell back to the krewes,” Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful Executive Director Debbie Evenson explained.
It’s all in an effort to keep Tampa Bay beautiful.
“We want to keep the city clean, but it’s also important that we don’t generate garbage,” Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful Board of Trustees President Stanley Kroh explained. “I mean, if things can be recycled, then they need to be recycled because that’s just a waste of resources otherwise.”
Since the start of this program, over 10,000 pounds of beads have been delivered to the MacDonald training center for reuse.
That is more than 330,000 individual bead necklaces.