Saturday morning, Sept. 29 dawned clear and comfortable. That was ideal weather for a volunteer cleanup of Lake Jackson's shoreline.
Veteran paddler Tommy Thompson gave the nearly 70 volunteers a safety briefing before sending them out onto the lake in canoes and kayaks.
"What we're going to do today is to have a shoreline cleanup," he announced before issuing guidance on how to avoid sunstroke, injury and drowning.
Meanwhile the county's Recycling and Sustainability Manager Tessa Schreiner was delighted with the turnout.
"It's awesome!" she exclaimed. "Last year we pulled out 524 pounds of trash, so we're curious if we'll find more or less this year. If we find more, that's great and we've done a good job. If we find less, that's great because we've found less in the lake so we kind of win either way."
And for the district's outgoing County Commissioner John Dailey - who's running for Tallahassee mayor - the event was a bit bittersweet.
"Yes, as a county commissioner, I am going to miss this," he admittted after thanking the volunteers for taking part. "But I look forward to coming back and volunteering in another capacity soon."
We'll learn how that turns out on November 6th, Election Day.
