The 3rd Annual i.CARE Trash Derby was a success!
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Earlier this month, we participated in the 3rd annual i.CARE Trash Derby down in the beautiful Florida Keys. This was incredible opportunity for our charity and we were so happy to take part in the massive cleanup effort. I know that we had so much fun cleaning up and hanging out with park rangers all day, I know that we'll be back in 2026!
Overall, the Derby managed to remove over 36,000lbs of trash and marine debris from the Florida Keys, which is a massive success! We participated in the Land/Shore division which managed to remove just under 7,000lbs in total, and your own Jeepers Keepers managed to pull 700lbs of that ourselves! Our team of 6 managed to remove just over 100lbs per person, which was way above our team goal. It was an absolute blast cleaning up Long Key State Park and Curry Hammock State Park and while we managed to remove over 300lbs of trash and debris from both parks, it was a drop in the bucket. Even discounting microplastics, the shorelines of both parks are so littered with marine debris, fishing ropes and nets, bulky trash (we managed to remove a huge foam piece of a floating dock!), clothing, and other trash that even if we spent a week straight of cleaning up, we would not even make a dent.
It was a pleasure working with Julie, Aimee, and John, the park rangers who supervised our sites, and we'll be working with them again the future. After all, it's our organization's mission to cleanup and beautify our state parks, so working with the rangers was a great experience for our young organization. It was a lot of fun, we learned a lot about each park, and we've certainly earned ourselves a ton of goodwill that we will certainly capitalize on during next year's Trash Derby.
We are truly grateful to our donors who helped make this trip possible, and we welcome you to support our mission by making a donation. Your support makes longer trips like this easier for our organization to undertake, and monthly sustaining donations are the backbone of our support. We truly appreciate any and all support you can offer, our beaches and parks will thank you!