Jude and her father Luis Rodriguez unload their bags of litter from the bed of a pickup truck Saturday morning for a cleanup event by RGV Fishing Area And Waterway Cleanups at Boca Chica Beach.(Denise Cathey/The Brownsville Herald)
Volunteers trickle in one or two at a time, dressed for hard work, shortly after 9 a.m. on Saturday at Boca Chica Beach.
A greeting comes from under a canopy set up off from the beach’s entrance by Richard Hitchcox, who deftly points out where they can pick up bags, trash pickers, and gloves from his supplies for the day’s cleanup of the litter scattered on the beach and blown back into the dunes.
Organized by RGV Fishing Area And Waterway Cleanups, the volunteers are part of a series of cleanup events organized by Hitchcox in different locations in the Rio Grande Valley to help keep the area’s fishing spots and waterways as pristine as possible.
The cleanup comes ahead of World Ocean Day on June 8 as part of a way to give back to the ocean waters that provide so much enjoyment to the community.
As part of World Ocean Day, communities and families come together and find ways to help protect our blue planet through conservation activities.
“Obviously, we don’t have the ocean, but we do have the Gulf that fills up from the ocean. So you go out and do what you can for it,” Hitchcox, founder of RGV Fishing Area And Waterway Cleanups, said.
Hitchcox intended for volunteers to specifically be tackling Barracuda Cove near the Boca Chica Beach Jetties after a rumor that debris ended up there from the fire that consumed the Pier 19 Restaurant and Bar on Feb. 23. He wanted to remove the burned boards as they still have nails in them, and the cove is a popular spot for children to fish.
However, higher than expected water levels that morning on the beach meant that Barracuda Cove was inaccessible to volunteers, so Hitchcox pivoted the event to what parts of Boca Chica Beach volunteers could reach.
Brownsville resident Luis Rodriguez brought out his 6-year-old daughter Jude to help with the cleanup due to his daughter’s curiosity about the origin of the litter she saw when their family would take trips to the beach.
“Every time we would go out to the beach, she would ask ‘why do people litter?’ because she knows that when we leave everything we took out with us—we take back to throw away. I think it’s a good opportunity for her to experience this and give back at such a young age,” he said.
As the hours pass, volunteers sweep their way across the beach, dropping full bags printed with “Keep Texas Beautiful” on them by one of the beach’s trash cans as they fill them up, then grabbing another to head out again. The group of volunteers, less than 20, is small but dedicated.
Hitchcox had hoped for more hands at the event, but high school graduations and summer vacation understandably meant that several cleanup regulars couldn’t make it. Nevertheless, the group pressed on to try and clean up what they could with the people they had.
“You learn how to adjust and clean up what you can clean up to make as big an impact as you can,” Hitchcox said.
