Volunteering On Vacation

Our hats off to Sheila at govisithawaii.com for suggesting "Volunteering On Vacation."

We enjoy visiting Maui so much, that it seemed like time to "give something back." We looked around a little and found Pacific Whale Foundation's "Volunteering On Vacation" program. As Brook, the manager of the program explained, "Pacific Whale Foundation helps provide volunteers for a number of other Maui organizations." These organizations in turn work to protect Maui's fragile ecosystem, cultural sites and marine life.

We chose the simplest project, a "beach cleanup." They provided a large trash bag, a pair of gloves and a sheet to record what's found. We got to pick the beach.

We chose a small section of Ma'alaea Beach. Here's what we cleaned up in a 150 foot section of beach:

• 32 cigarette butts.
• 65 Pieces of plastic
• 1 Piece of netting
• 6 Pieces of fishing line or gear
• 2 Pieces of rope
• 1 Syringe with needle attached
• 1 Condom
• 2 Metal beverage cans
• 10 Glass beverage bottles
• 2 Pieces of styrofoam
• 2 Six pack rings
• 22 Plastic bags
• And more paper and fast food cups and wrappers than we could count.

We could have easily filled another bag in this same spot.

For our efforts Pacific Whale Foundation gave us two really cool tee-shirts and we got the satisfaction of knowing we'd done a little bit to help clean-up paradise.

Has anyone else tried "Volunteering On Vacation?" Why not tell us about your experience?