The Great South Bay Society is organizing a cleanup effort on Saturday September 19th  (rain date September 20^th). We will be conducting cleanups of the islands to the south of Amityville.

Transit to and from the islands will be available. If you wish to use your own boat this is encouraged as well.  Please let us know if you will be needing transit or if you are taking your own boat.

            The goal of this day is to cleanup as much trash from the islands as possible. We encourage a good time while doing so, but this is a work effort. We will have refreshments after the exercise but will not supply any alcohol. It is your discretion to bring your own for the after-party.

            The islands that we aim to clean are often environmentally fragile and physically harsh. You need to be careful of the trash that you are picking up as not to injure yourself.  Gloves will be provided, but caution should be taken. These islands are filled with bugs of various sorts and poison ivy is present in some places. Please take precautions to use bug/tick spray; we will have a supply on hand with the boat captains if this is needed. Additionally, you will be getting wet, sandy, muddy…. You should think to wear clothes that will be appropriate for the conditions (light long sleeves, pants, water walkers, boots..) Bring an extra pair of clothes for the party afterwards if you will not be able to get home in between.

Other things to note:

-          Should you see hazardous waste or bio-hazard waste, do not collect it. Alert your landing zone operator.

-          Insects (greenfly, mosquito, ticks…) use insect spray. Please bring your own, we will have some for those without it.

-          Tides, wakes, wind; for those of you using your own boats, be careful where you anchor and be mindful of the conditions. All boat owners should be cognizant of the conditions and are responsible for their possessions and vessels.

            Captain’s meeting Friday September 18th^th 7:30pm: Yacht Service Marina, Ocean Ave. Amityville

All those looking to participate should attend. All boat captains are strongly encouraged to attend.

Clean up day: Saturday September 19th

8:00am: Gather at Yacht Service in Amityville (Ocean Ave, Amityville). Coffee and bagels.

8:30am: Transit to islands from Yacht Service Boatyard, Ocean Ave, Amityville

9am – 11am: Pickup and collection

11am – Noon: Transit to mainland and unload.

Noon: food, refreshments, raffle, announcements

We need your help with the following:

Manpower - Volunteering your time to clean up our bay.  This is a physical job. We need as many able people as possible. Last year we had about 150 people attend. Hopefully, this year we can beat that. Please let us know if you will be attending and how many people you might bring. This will help us plan for the event and make your time more enjoyable and effective.  The more people, the greater effect we will all have.

We will have a light breakfast before leaving the dock and lunch and refreshments upon our return.

Raffle - We are currently running a raffle and a T-shirt purchase for all attendees.  Please contact Dave, Mike, Joe, Rich or myself for tickets. We’ll also be selling them at the event.

            The raffle’s grand prizes are Art from: ‘Steelfish Harry’, Doug Zider and a Basket of Cheer. We’ll also have many other gift certificates from local merchants (please see our sponsor list).

Details of the raffle:

            Raffle tickets alone: $5 per ticket or 5 for $20.

T-shirt and ticket: $15 gets you a T-shirt with the design shown above (designed by local artist Doug Zider) and one ticket. If you are interested in a t-shirt we’ll need to get your order before September first.