CRW and SEA LIFE Aquarium cleanup in Sterling Heights nets 622 pounds of trash
They crash cars for a living to keep people safe.
On Wednesday, however, the job of the engineers from General Motors' airbag division was all about helping the environment and keeping it safe for everyone, whether it be kayakers or painted turtles.
"As a team we're always trying to volunteer for something we can do together," said Justin Schick, one of more than a dozen GM CARES volunteers participating in SEA LIFE Aquarium's Global Beach Clean at Joseph Delia Park in Sterling Heights. "We've actually done this event a few times."
Every year, groups from around the world join in a global effort to clean up the trash in and around their local parks, rivers, lakes and streams including SEA LIFE Michigan, which has collected as much as 6,177 pounds of trash during the annual international event. This year's hosts in Macomb County included SEA LIFE Aquarium of Auburn Hills and the Clinton River Watershed, whose team of 24 volunteers collected 622 pounds of trash in a matter of a few hours.
Their take included parts of a slide, a car door, and parts of a car pulled from the Gibson Drain.
"It's awesome. It gets us out in the community as a group," said Jeff Barber, with the GM CARES group. "It shows we care and we do."
Joining Barber and Schick was Jamal Jume, an engineer who moved to Michigan from Puerto Rico, where people make a constant effort to keep the oceans free of debris.
"You don't want to hurt the sea turtles," said Jume, whose volunteerism also has to do with his hobbies on the water.
"I do kayaking and motorboating. I like water stuff," he said, adding there is nothing worse than enjoying a cruise down the river only to find your water trail blocked by a refrigerator that someone tossed over the embankment.
Jume said plastic is the biggest culprit.
"Any kind of bag, bottles, anything plastic related," he said.
It doesn't break down and when an animal gets entangled or its beak stuck it can kill them.
"Last year was the first time we joined the global effort but we do these cleanups all the time," said Erik Schreefel of Waterford and marketing manager for SEA LIFE Aquarium. "We do three of them every spring at Pontiac Lake State Park."
