says. "The piece of 

 litter dropped in the 

 Neuse River in 

 Raleigh can easily 

 wash ashore down- 

 stream in Goldsboro, 

 Kinston or New Bern." 



As the cleanup 

 expanded, more 

 partnerships were 

 formed with N.C. 

 Wildlife Resources 

 Commission, Keep 

 North Carolina Clean 

 and Beautiful, N.C. 

 Department of 

 Environment, Health 

 and Natural Resources 

 and the statewide 

 network of Keep 

 America Beautiful coordinators. 



Since Big Sweep's inception, 

 thousands of hours have been invested 

 by state employees who coordinated and 

 promoted the event, developed educa- 

 tional efforts and shaped the nonprofit 

 organization that's now a foundation for 

 the cleanup. 



In each North Carolina county, Big 

 Sweep leaders sought a person to 

 spearhead the cleanup — to designate 

 cleanup sites, to recruit and direct 

 volunteers, to distribute materials, to be 

 a local spokesperson and to arrange trash 

 collection. More often than not, these 

 individuals were county employees: 

 Keep America Beautiful coordinators, 

 solid waste directors or cooperative 

 extension agents. 



In a few cases, these county 

 coordinators have been volunteers. Inez 

 Bradt, the Pender County coordinator, 

 has been a part of Big Sweep since the 

 beginning. The 78-year-old runs the 

 cleanup at Surf City and Topsail Beach 

 much like a general mounting an assaut 

 on a dreaded enemy. 



"Beach litter doesn't have a chance 

 in Pender County with Inez around," 

 says Caroline Parker, vice president of 

 the N.C. Big Sweep board of directors 

 and executive director of Keep Wayne 

 County Beautiful. "She's always after 

 people to keep trash in its proper place. 



Glass Beverage Bottles 



I^^B i i i i n 



I I I I I I 



m i i i i i i 



■ 1 1 1 1 i n n 



1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 



Big Sweep volunteers collected 199,127 glass beverage bottles or the equivalent 

 of one glass bottle for every resident in the cities of Fayetteville, Asheville ana Wilmington. 



And I mean year-round." 



Local support of Big Sweep doesn't 

 stop with the county coordinator. Each 

 coordinator has a small army of dedi- 

 cated site captains who volunteer to 

 organize litter pickups along short 

 stretches of shoreline. 



And dedication is a key word here. 

 Some site captains participate year after 

 year, making Big Sweep as much a part 

 of their yearly calendar as Fourth of July 

 and Thanksgiving. 



Although hours of in-kind and 

 volunteer time provided the energy 

 needed to coordinate the cleanup, it did 

 not provide the funds necessary to 

 adequately promote Big Sweep. 

 Financial support of corporate neighbors 

 was needed to expand and support the 

 cleanup and its educational materials. 

 Big Sweep organizers solicited funding 

 from companies and corporations that 

 had a vested interest in North Carolina 

 and its miles of coastal and inland 

 waterways. These companies included: 

 First Citizens Bank, R.J. Reynolds 

 Tobacco Co., Duke Power Co., Caro- 

 lina Power and Light, MCI, Glaxo- 

 Wellcome, ITW Hi-Cone, N.C. Beer 

 Wholesalers and the N.C. Soft Drink 

 Association. 



In some cases, the companies that 

 Big Sweep organizers approached were 

 ones whose products were often among 



the litter collected. 

 Instead of denying the 

 problem, these compa- 

 nies — R.J. Reynolds. 

 ITW Hi-Cone, N.C. 

 Beer Wholesalers and 

 N.C. Soft Drink 

 Association — took a 

 positive approach, 

 providing funding and 

 urging their customers 

 to properly dispose of 

 their products. 



R.J. Reynolds 

 launched a publicity 

 campaign urging 

 smokers not to litter 

 beaches with cigarette 

 butts, which have 

 consistently been the 

 most prevalent item collected by Big 

 Sweep volunteers. They erected bill- 

 boards along highways and distributed 

 tent cards to motels, hotels, restaurants 

 and stores. Their slogan, "Don't leave 

 your butt on the beach," became 

 prominent. They also developed portable 

 pocket ashtrays. Big Sweep county 

 coordinators helped to distribute 

 thousands of these to Tar Heel smokers. 



In 1990, Big Sweep leaders sought a 

 title sponsor for the one-day cleanup and 

 found one in First Citizens Bank, a North 

 Carolina-based bank with more than 290 

 branch offices from the mountains to the 

 coast. The bank offered financial 

 support, a new source of volunteers and 

 a statewide distribution mechanism for 

 the event brochures. 



"I'll always admire and appreciate 

 Alex MacFadyen at First Citizens Bank," 

 Spence says. "He saw Big Sweep's 

 potential and put a lot of faith in a 

 loosely organized group dedicated to a 

 single cause." 



With bank funding. Big Sweep 

 finally had the financial resources to 

 grow and better promote the cleanup. 

 The First Citizens Bank donation was 

 used, in part, to print posters and more 

 than 100,000 event brochures that were 

 distributed through branch offices. The 

 money also allowed Big Sweep to hire a 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 17 



