Cleaning up Deer Island: Mississippi Power’s ‘Renew our Rivers’ program

Giving back is always in season and today a very large group of people did just that.

More than one hundred people flooded Deer Island on Friday with one shared mission: to pick up the trash. Beau Rivage Floor Supervisor Sherrie Angueria said, “Nobody has a whole lot of time these days and we all have children growing up, but we need to set an example for our children. We need to show them that we care about our environment and the only way to do that is to get out here and do something about it. We need to be proactive.”

For the past ten years, Mississippi Power has been bringing people over to the island for their ‘Renew our Rivers’ campaign. Mississippi Power Senior Environmental Specialist Courtney Vanderschaff said, “It is as much as an awareness event as it is a cleanup event. If we can show people what is out here as far as trash is concerned then they are more likely to not leave behind their own trash.”

It might be hard to believe, but volunteers have picked up more than 20 tons of trash over the past ten years during the Deer Island cleanup. Volunteer Kiersyn Spurr said, “There is a lot more trash than you think there would be because you don’t see it until you are looking for it so there is a lot of plastic bottles and ropes and Ziploc bags and stuff like that.”

Even if you didn’t have a chance to get out to the island Friday, making our environment a better place for all isn’t hard no matter where you are. “Take it on personally. Bring a bag out when you are out on an island or on the beach and pick up trash while you are out there.”