PORT TOWNSEND — It was a day filled with sun, breeze and garbage grabbers.
Those long-handled tools, handy for picking up pieces of trash, were lent out Monday as the Port Townsend Marine Science Center hosted a Martin Luther King Jr. Day beach cleanup at Fort Worden State Park. The event from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. drew 110 people, according to center staffer Holly Weinstein.
Weinstein and Dorit Liss, both AmeriCorps members, handed out gloves, repurposed shopping bags and the garbage grabbers from an outdoor table; Dumpsters and recycling receptacles awaited people returning with their beach debris.
The center typically organizes an invasive-weed pull on the holiday. But since a beach cleanup is more conducive to social distancing, it was the chosen outing on local shores. Participants were invited to pick up supplies at Fort Worden and clean the beach there or at the Port Townsend Boat Haven, North Beach County Park or Old Fort Townsend State Park.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a fee-free day at Washington state parks, so visitors didn’t need a Discover Pass for their vehicles; the next fee-free day is March 19, the state parks’ 108th anniversary.
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Jefferson County senior reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com.
