Padre Island Safaris
Surf and Bay fishing, Bird watching, Beach adventures
Captain Billy L. Sandifer 84l Flour Bluff Dr.
Corpus Christi, Tx. 784l8 36l-937-8446
email Billysandifer@stx.rr.com           

                                     "2005 SFCCI 10th Annual Billy Sandifer Big Shell Beach Cleanup"

On Sat., 5 March, approximately 320 volunteers hand picked all man made debris from 10 ½ miles of the PINS beach known as Big Shell. The weather was cool and mostly cloudy and the only sign of the forecast moderate rains was an occasional very light sprinkle. Things got off to a good start and then just got better and better. The last volunteer was in route to the work area by 07:55 a.m. Taking into consideration that individual work groups had to be formed, T-shirts, refreshments and supplies handed out, trailers tallied and assigned to the various work groups plus insuring walking volunteers had a ride made this within itself quite a feat.

We began picking up trash at the 18 mile beach and ended the day at the 28 ½ mile. Traditionally, the Big Shell; which is the worst trashed area on PINS, is considered from the 18 to the 29 mile. So, we came within ½ mile of getting the entire area. This is the farthest south the event has ever reached. 2,051 bags of trash were gathered and removed from the area. NPS estimates this to be 39 tons. The grand total for the event since 95' is 358 tons, with a total of 1, 838 volunteers.

BEFORE Note: The little clump of grass and the big dune for reference

AFTER: Picked clean!

The Big Shell is a very unique and special place and likewise this is a very unique and special event filled with wonder and challenge and the most wonderful of people doing more than anyone could ever expect of them. They don’t do it for praise or one upmanship or ego or personal gain. They do it because it needs doing and they know that no one else is ever going to do it if they don’t. They do it because they deeply love this wild and isolated place where Mother Ocean meets the shore and they are standing tall and proud and letting it be known to the whole wide world that it is not acceptable to them to litter the Sea or the beaches of this Natural Treasure that is PINS. They are building a solid track record of dedication to and concern for and stewardship of this wonderful resource for Resource Management personnel to evaluate before making final management plans in the future.

There was a certain personality to this year’s event that I had not noticed in the past several years. I arrived at 06:18 a.m. at Malaquite and was surprised to find that there were already near to a dozen volunteers awaiting me and raring to go. That ain’t never happened before. Ha. Team work and sincere dedication to the event were conspicuous from the very beginning. Laughter and good humor filled the air. The possibility of hard rain was briefly mentioned among the Section Leaders and then immediately shrugged off because it didn’t make anyone any difference one way or the other. Everyone was like minded that we were going to get it done and that was all there was to it. Down south later in the event someone mentioned a friend encountering a 3 ½ ft. Rattlesnake and hoping he got a picture of it without even slowing down picking up trash and I remember very briefly wondering if it was an Diamondback or the more common Massasauga without slowing down at my tasks either.

Upon completing cleaning in an area I’d drive the suburban a couple of hundred yards south of the southern most volunteer and vehicle and commence cleaning in that area. In what seemed only a few short seconds I would glance up and there would be volunteers picking up trash and vehicles headed south of us in a seemingly endless procession as far as the eye could see. The vehicles were all lined up one behind the other moving slowly and steadily along. And then I realized what was different today; this event was ALIVE. IT was absolutely a living and breathing and moving thing within itself. It was as if; instead of the event feeding off of us and our efforts, we were thriving off of it.

And I knew that at 2:00 p.m. the event would end and this living thing would die and oh my, but I hated that knowledge, for I knew how very, very special this living thing was and this moment was and how rare and I just did not want it to end. I wanted it to go on forever. And in the last few minutes I was made aware that obviously I was not the only one who had fallen under it’s spell, for a man and his wife and a small child drove past in an SUV and he stopped and called out, "aw, Billy, we aren’t going to quit are we?" "Don’t make us quit, Billy, we are doing so good." His wife echoed his feeling even with a small child in her lap and soon their pleas to continue working were being echoed by the occupants of every passing vehicle. But I knew that I had a responsibility to all of the volunteers and as bad as I hated to I shut it down at 5 minutes till 2:00 p.m. I knew that any number of volunteers were badly fatigued whether they would admit it or not. And although the moment has passed I hope that memory lingers with me all of my days. And maybe, just maybe, that living entity that was so alive and full of spirit isn’t dead at all but only resting; hibernating peacefully alongside the dunes and the sea, waiting to be reborn again when it's time comes in the following years.

Thanks to all our wonderful sponsors. C.C.A. Corpus Christi Chapter. H.E.B. in Flour Bluff for $250 worth of supplies. Daniel Dain and Domino’s Pizza, Roy’s Bait & Tackle Outfitters, Fishbites, TEXMAPS, Smartshield Sun Care Products, Frank Floyd of Wind & Wave Watersports, ODD INK Imprinted Goods, and my long term time friend, Mr. Ace Leal and his crew for all the help with the T-shirts. A special thanks to Mr. Steve Naylor of Round Rock, Texas for his generous donation of $500. Special thanks to Capt. Everett and Pam Johnson; Gulf Coast Connections Magazine, for their generous cash donation and for all the publicity the event receives through their magazine. Getting the word out to potential volunteers is one of the most important tasks involved in making this event such a success and we are very grateful to and thankful for our media sponsors. These include David Sikes and the Corpus Christi Caller Times, The Saltwater Angler and the Padre Island Moon. But most of all, THANK YOU, the individual volunteer who gives of your time and your energy and spends a Saturday day off traveling to PINS and working hard all day and MAKING IT A BETTER PLACE FOR OUR HAVING BEEN THERE. I LOVE YOU ALL. And typically last, but never least, THANK YOU TO MY CO-CONSPIRATOR, MR. TYLER THORSEN, WITHOUT WHOM HALF OF THE NECESSARY PRE-EVENT WORK WOULD NEVER GET DONE. Looks to me like when I croak Tyler seems to have inherited this event. Y’all remember that and don’t let him back out on it.

Captain Billy L. Sandifer