TAMPA, Fla. — After hundreds of thousands of pirates invaded downtown Tampa on Saturday leaving quite the mess, an army of volunteers set sail to come to the rescue.
Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful brought hundreds of volunteers to clean up all the trash left behind from the Gasparilla parade.
After the many pirates pillaged and plundered their way down Bayshore Boulevard for Gasparilla, they left what some would consider a pigsty in their wake.
Kristina Moreta with Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful said it’s the community's duty to make sure it’s cleaned up.
“If we don’t clean up, it's all going to go into our storm drains that lead into Tampa Bay and eventually go into the ocean,” she said.
This army of volunteers refused to abandon the ship and got everyone on board to purge the streets of the litter.
“It's kind of overwhelming, you’ll see people from the neighborhood coming and thanking us for keeping Tampa Bay beautiful,” Moreta said.
Armed with grabbers, gloves and good intentions, the group set sail to divide and conquer.
Al Donn says they split into groups of four so everyone can take care of the main drag and the neighborhoods.
“There are a lot of people out here, scouring the neighborhoods and surrounding areas,“ Donn said.
Regardless of how well this litter was hidden, volunteers searched every nook and cranny for any hidden treasures left behind.
“[The litter is in ] all kinds of hiding places," Donn said.
Donn added that all the beads picked up are recycled, cleaned and donated to the Ronald McDonald House.
“They refurbish them, wash them, sanitize them and then sell them," Donn said. "It's great something discarded can find another use.”
And for volunteers in this group, like Laurel Philbin, said it’s the least she can do to be a part of the solution and not the pollution.
“We saw random people just picking up trash and beads over Bayshore before and that just made us very happy,” she said.
Organizers said more than 400 volunteers helped pitch in with Sunday’s effort to clean up the streets.