On Saturday, January 22, 2022, more than 40 volunteers gathered at the SPC’s Bay Pines STEM Center at the Wood You Give a Day event to help remove wood and lumber debris from the STEM Center shoreline. This event, sponsored by the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, is the third time a volunteer team made up of community members and SPC students, faculty and staff has gathered to help remove this type of storm debris that came ashore in Tropical Storm Eta.

Volunteers really make the magic happen. Most of the larger components of the  habitat restoration work at the STEM Center has been funded by grants, including derelict vessel removal and the seawall removal, but the remarkable changes happen when people help improve the habitat. There is nothing better than a quiet walk along the shore after the debris is gone.

Saturday’s event yielded 6,000 lbs of lumber that was then hauled away by SPC partners at Keep Pinellas Beautiful. As a an additional opportunity, volunteers were encouraged to learn methods to re-use and re-purpose the collected lumber. SPC’s Engineering, Manufacturing and Building Arts Director Sid Martin and faculty member Greg Lewis supported the day with tools, fasteners and lessons on building. Some of the lumber collected will be used to make pollinator condos and planter boxes, and we look forward to seeing how attendees who took some lumber home will use it.

Volunteers were rewarded for their efforts with AquaBucha beverages from locally owned Mother Kombucha and a Cuban lunch from Pipos Restaurant – all donated by the Tampa Bay Estuary Program!

Big days like this are just amazing. The difference is remarkable, and I can’t wait until we our Living Shoreline project is complete and ready for the entire community to enjoy.

Want to volunteer at the STEM Center? Interested in helping to clean up?  We are always looking for volunteers, and we can add you to our email list. Please message me, STEM Center Director Erica Moulton, at moulton.erica@spcollege.edu, or follow us on FB at @SPCSTEMCenter.