Photo By Jason Bortz | Navy Lt. Jo Ann Martinez, licensed clinical social worker, Naval Hospital Pensacola,...... read more read more
PENSACOLA, Fla. - As the sun rose over the beach on the morning of Jan. 12, members of Naval Hospital Pensacola’s Ambulatory Procedure Unit and Post-anesthesia Care Unit were busy cleaning a portion of Johnson’s Beach that is not accessible by car. Navy Lt. Jason Brough, APU/PACU nurse, of Corpus Christi, Texas, organized the beach clean-up after noticing the hard to reach area during his frequent fishing trips to the beach along Perdido Key.
“There are portions of Johnson’s Beach that are easily accessible by car, but as you go out towards Fort [McRee] there’s no road, so it’s only accessible by boat,” Brough said as he explained the circumstances that led him to organize the beach clean-up. “Several of [the hospital staff] fish and do activities on the water and we just noticed that this was a part of the beach [that needed some attention] and it’s difficult to get to for your average beach comber.”
Brough then contacted the National Seashore Organization to see what he could do about the beach. After receiving information about the wildlife and their habitat in the area, he was given the “OK” to proceed with the clean-up effort from the organization.
“Lt. Brough asked several of the staff, enlisted and officers alike, if they would like to participate in giving back to the community in the form of a beach clean-up,” said Lt. j.g. Sarah Carmack, APU/PACU nurse, of Willoughby, Ohio. “It’s just nice to be able to keep the areas and attractions clean.”
On the morning of the clean-up, approximately 25 members of the hospital’s APU and PACU, along with family members, met at Sherman’s Cove on-board Naval Air Station Pensacola to board boats that would shuttle them out to Johnson’s Beach.
“It was a lot of plastic bottles, beer cans, beer bottles and all manner of debris like that,” said Brough. “There was some household debris, but probably the oddest piece we found was a complete porcelain toilet.”
After collecting several large bags of trash, the volunteers gathered for a planned picnic as a thank you for the effort given from everyone involved.
When asked about the success of the outing Brough said, “It was a lot of fun and we’re looking forward to doing it again. We are contemplating, as a unit, doing an Adopt-A-Beach and adopting that stretch of the beach to do on a regular basis.”
| Date Taken: | 02.04.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 02.04.2013 14:27 |
| Story ID: | 101451 |
| Location: | PENSACOLA, FLORIDA, US |
| Web Views: | 94 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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