Photo by Kathy Hart 



She was concerned about clean 

 water and air, but she had not 

 translated that concern into action. 



Before she was named Keep 

 America Beautiful coordinator for 

 Carteret County, she had what she 

 calls "inklings of experience" with 

 water quality problems as secretary 

 of a homeowners association. 



"And my husband and I had 

 always been boat owners,' ' she says. 

 "We had been sailing in Hudson Bay 

 and dodging all the debris in the 

 water there. That was background." 



Then she landed the KAB job in 

 1986. 



"As time went by and as I was ex- 

 posed to more pollution problems, 

 especially marine pollution, my 

 awareness was heightened," she says. 



"I began to feel our own program 

 here in Carteret County could make a 

 difference. I saw no government 

 agencies doing anything to deal with 

 these problems, so we met the 

 challenge.' ' 



Now, she says she has become ' 'a 

 bit obsessed." "I eat, sleep and work 

 the whole concept of a cleaner 

 marine environment," she says. 



Warrender was one of Big Sweep's 

 original coordinators in 1987, when 

 the cleanup was confined to the 

 beaches and was called Beach 

 Sweep. She entered the Beach Sweep 

 arena skeptical about how much dif- 

 ference a handful of people picking 

 litter from the beaches could make. 



"That first Beach Sweep we 

 picked up bags and bags of trash," 

 she says. "They were lining the 

 beach. Back then there weren't many 

 garbage cans on the beach and not 

 much awareness on the part of the 

 municipalities.' ' 



Beach Sweep changed all that 

 forever, she says. 



"The towns didn't like all the bad 

 publicity they were receiving about 

 the trash on their beaches. So, the 

 next year, they had town workers 

 pick up trash the day before Beach 

 Sweep '88. Now, they have placed 

 more garbage cans on the beaches 

 and they pick up the trash on a 

 regular basis." 



That change in attitude is what 

 Big Sweep is all about, Warrender 

 says. The metamorphosis extends not 

 only to town officials, but to recrea- 

 tional fishermen and others who 

 contribute much of the litter that 

 washes ashore. 



Her challenge now, she says, is to 

 involve more local people in the an- 

 nual waterway cleanup. 



"The first two years, I was 

 discouraged at the number of local 

 people participating," she says. "We 

 had more people from other areas 

 coming in." 



Then, in 1989, the first year of Big 

 Sweep's statewide effort, Hurricane 

 Hugo's winds and rains came ashore 

 and kept potential Big Sweepers 

 indoors. 



"This year I've seen a real change 

 in local attitudes," she says. "Earth 

 Day helped here and opened up a lot 

 of doors for us to visit local schools." 



Warrender steps out of her station 

 wagon at a Big Sweep site and 

 witnesses the fruit of her school 

 visitations. She meets a busload of 47 

 middle school students from Have- 

 lock and about 50 students from 

 West Carteret High School. All have 

 come to pick up litter. 



"This year there have been more 

 young people," she says. "There are 

 large numbers of groups, such as 

 Brownies and Girl Scouts, church 

 groups, clubs, that kind of thing." 



Those young people are more than 

 just litter grabbers. They are the key 

 to a brighter future for the marine 

 environment, Warrender says. 



"Since the whole focus of Big 

 Sweep is changing attitudes, what 

 better people to start with than the 

 youth," she says. "They begin to 

 think about the trash they generate 

 and their responsibilities for doing 

 something about it. 



"They won't be thought of as en- 

 vironmentalists," she says, "because 

 taking responsibility will be a 

 natural part of their lives, like 

 brushing their teeth. Everyone will 

 be doing it. 



"And, in 20 years, we're all going 

 to be more intimately involved with 

 our garbage, whether we like it or 

 not." 



She gets back into her car and 

 drives in the direction of the Grayden 

 Paul Bridge at Beaufort, where 

 another cleanup crew has gathered to 

 meet the challenges of Big Sweep '90. ■ 



Photo byC.R. Edgerton 



