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Cleanup Volunteers Get Pick Of The Litter

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By GEOFF FOX, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 17, 2007

Updated: 09/16/2007 09:55 pm

WESLEY CHAPEL - About 300 people took part in Wesley Chapel's first Coastal and Waterways Cleanup on Saturday morning.

Among them was a three-year veteran of the cleanup: Kevin Barber, cub master of Pack 203, who helped supervise 31 trash-collecting boys on Wesley Chapel Loop, off State Road 54.

'Last year, they found a dead armadillo, so the boys thought that was pretty cool,' Barber said, as he picked up T-shirts and trash bags in the parking lot of the SunTrust Bank on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard. 'Mostly, though, it's just cans and plastic Coke bottles.'

In past years, Wesley Chapel residents traveled to Land O' Lakes and San Antonio to participate in the cleanup.

Adding cleanup crews in Wesley Chapel was logical considering the area's rapid growth, said Michelle Barbour, the site co-captain at SunTrust Bank.

'I think people will be more willing to come' a shorter distance, she said. 'This is the first year Wesley Chapel has had a site, so hopefully we'll just keep building it and building it.'

Crews of adults and children cleaned for two hours along State Road 54, just west of Interstate 75, Curley Road and Meadow Pointe Boulevard, among other areas.

Anthony Patrinostro and his daughter, Sarah, of Girl Scout Troop 159, were at the bank early Saturday morning.

It was the first coastal cleanup for both.

'We're expecting a lot trash,' Patrinostro said, as his daughter nodded. 'Paper, license plates - who knows?'

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 948-4217 or gfox@tampatrib.com.

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