Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Carrie Auerbach. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Carrie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

I’ve learned many life lessons in taking risks. Some good, some not so. But if you don’t try, how will you ever know what you can accomplish? My career was in sales and my boss always said, “go for the no”.
One of the best parts of my volunteerism is who really can say ‘no’ to helping the environment? If it’s an ask to use some space for volunteer parking or going in front of a large organization to ask for assistance with supplies, ask!
One risk was finding a solution to eliminate personal fireworks on the beach. Because there is a law allowing people to bring their own fireworks on July 4 and December 31st, I worked with the City to dig into other ordinances where we found 3 that superseded fireworks. We had a major social media campaign and virtually eliminated all fireworks on our beach on 4th of July. Good for the environment and good for the safety of others.
With risk, comes reward. This month TI Adopt a Beach won Keep Florida Beautiful’s “Adoption Program of the Year Award” as well as Keep Pinellas Beautiful’s “Outstanding Volunteer Service Award”. To say I am humbly honored is an understatement

Carrie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I grew up in Buffalo, NY and moved to Philadelphia in 1982 where I raised my son who still lives there with his wife.
I decided to change my world nine years ago and move to St Petersburg. My life dream always was to live without snow amongst palm trees!

Walking the beach, i always picked up random trash and my friend and I thought, “how hard can it be to keep a 4 mile island clean?” Ha! Well, it takes a community of like-minded people to work together! As time passed, the reality is, it’s about education and a constant message of a culture of a clean beach community.

I joined the Keep Pinellas Beautiful organization about 6 months after I started organized beach cleanups. They provide tremendous support, not just in supplies, but assistance in seeing creative ideas come to fruition.

It has been 5 years now. Between my monthly cleanups (every second Saturday) and cleanups after major holidays, I keep quite busy. We also go out to the beach on busy days and hand out trash bags…especially during Spring Break!

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Social media is my tool. I spend a lot of time cross posting to environmental pages. Keep Pinellas Beautiful shares all of the events, as well.
It’s important to post educational information to share knowledge whether it’s about microplastics, turtles, climate change or just beautiful nature. Have a great relationship with the City staff helps too!

We have over 60 Beach Ambassadors that patrol the beach for trash, educate our visitors about our turtles (filling in holes, knocking down castles and keeping the beach dark at night). People love to volunteer and get involved, so by promoting being part of a group helps alot!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

After the first hurricane (Helene), I felt helpless. Access to the beach was denied to anyone other than residents. I went to the EOC (Emergency Operation Center), located off the island and met with the City staff. Together, we came up with a plan to bus volunteers onto the island to help remove massive amounts of debris off the beach. There was so much sand pushed onto the streets that we needed to clear the beach to clean and replace the sand so we could get people access to their homes. On Monday and Tuesday (Sept 30 and Oct 1) we had 4 busloads of volunteers (over 300 people) donating their time. We removed microwaves, trees, tires, sofas, peoples belongings and everything including the kitchen sink! …it was heart wrenching work but everyone was determined and happy to help. Once beach access was allowed, we waited a day to stay out of the residents way, but then had cleanups on October 3 and 5th. We had no ability to park in the City lots as they were all destroyed, so I contacted the hotels that were closed and we got permission to use their lots. Those cleanups resulted in over 700 volunteers!
We had to shut down because of Hurricane Milton. We had 2 more organized cleanups after that, utilizing hotel and restaurant parking lots and covering every mile of the island from North to South in a grid pattern. In total, we had over 1400 volunteers, eliminating over 60,000 pounds of debris.

This was a team effort, organizing supplies and people. Treasure Island was the first beach community to allow cleanups as we collaborated with city staff and Keep Pinellas Beautiful to come together

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stories/treasureislandadoptabeach/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/treasureislandadoptabeach
• Other: [email protected]