Nearly 300 volunteers gathered to take part in the 2010 Keep America Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup on Naval Air Station Whidbey Island April 23.

Navy Whidbey Recycle and Forest City Military Communities Northwest hosted the event and teamed up with NAS Whidbey Island Sailors and Marines to remove trash from Navy family housing neighborhoods in Saratoga Heights, Maylor Point, and Whidbey Apartments, as well as the beach and waterfront along Crescent Harbor on the NAS Whidbey Island Seaplane Base.

“With all the Sailors, Marines and various commands who turned up today, along with Forest City, the Navy Exchange and Navy Whidbey Recycle, it’s been the best participation we’ve had in years,” said Paul Brewer, solid waste management director for NAS Whidbey Island.

The Great American Cleanup occurs annually from March 1 through May 31 thanks to the efforts of an estimated three million volunteers and attendees at events across America.

Navy Whidbey Recycle has participated in Keep America Beautiful waste reduction and recycling programs for 20 years and has been holding the cleanup activities for the last 16, which began with the Seaplane Base waterfront after the building of Earth Day Park on the installation, according to Brewer.

Forest City partnered with Navy Whidbey Recycle three years ago and began their participation in the clean up, as well as providing a barbecue for the volunteers at the event.

According to Beth Morgan, a community services specialist with Forest City, the relationship has been great as recycling is a large part of their philosophy.

“It’s important because it just shows that we have to take care of our Earth; if we don’t, who’s going to? We’re all responsible for that,” said Morgan.

Morgan said the approximately 40 Forest City personnel participating in the event can serve as a model to their residents and inspire them to be more proactive in eco-friendly and recycling activities.Of those participating, nearly 120 were representing one command, CNATTU. According to CNATTU Commanding Officer, Cmdr. David Latosky, the command maintains and instills a high standard of environmental stewardship and tries to develop new green programs to reduce their impact on the environment.

“I’d like to make sure that my children have the same clean air, blue skies and green grass that I did when I was growing up,” said Latosky.

“I think (events like this) make the students aware not to do it {litter} in the future. The younger generation can see that people actually throw away this stuff and it’s not going anywhere and it’s not (okay) because it doesn’t degrade,” said Aviation Electronics Technician 1st Class (AW) Patrick Lybarger, an instructor assigned to CNATTU.

According to Kassie Gale, Navy Whidbey Recycle, as of April 26, the event yielded 12,360 pounds of garbage, 79 percent of which (9820 pounds) was recyclable material. Gale said this was a four percent improvement in diversion from the waste stream than what was recorded the previous year.

Among the items found were a tractor tire that filled the bed of a pickup truck and an automobile rear axle assembly removed from the waterfront that, according to Brewer, had marred the landscape for a number of years.