Gasparilla clean-up in Tampa, 450 volunteers clear neighborhoods of beads and trash

TAMPA, Fla. - The pirates may have had a successful Gasparilla invasion, but they left some treasure behind, and it was a team effort on land and sea to find it.

Yellow vests could be seen for miles down Bayshore Blvd on Sunday morning, as 450 volunteers with the City of Tampa and Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful helped clear neighborhoods of beads and trash while volunteer divers did the same beneath the surface.

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"Obviously, 450 volunteers aren't going to clean it all up, but we'll put a dent in it, and its fun, its good, its comradery," said Deputy Director of Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful, Allen Antolik.

For Sam Etheredge and his family, who live close to the parade route, volunteering was a way to show his children that cleaning up a mess is important, especially when it means keeping your community clean.

"The beads and the coins and stuff really get in the grass, which people don't really see," Etheredge added. "They clean up the streets very well, the city does, but that stuff needs to be handpicked and this group of volunteers do a great job with it."

Beads were collected separately, so they can be donated to the MacDonald Training Center where they clean them and sell them to crews for next year’s Gasparilla festivities.

You can also do the same with the piles you have at home, and Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful can help.

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"If you don't want your beads, stop by our office, contact us on our website, give us a call, we do have an outdoor shed where we can put buckets out and people can drop them off all the way up until the next Gasparilla, and we'll make sure they get to MacDonald Training center," Antolik added.

After all, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.