President Kristin Keller welcomed all to the meeting at Palmera Inn and Suites
Kevin Courtney offered the prayer and led the pledge to the flag.
Announcements:
Orientation meeting at Mangiamo's held Wednesday June 1 at 5:45
Founders night will be held June 24 at Spring Lake, more details to follow.
Past President Lynn King, substituting for Suzi Oliver, Sergeant at Arms collected Happy $$
Speaker:
Dr. Jean Fruh, Executive Director of the Outside Foundation was the speaker.
A 501C3, the Outside Foundation has been around for over eight years. Its mission is to get kids outside and to preserve and protect the local environment. To accomplish that, the Foundation has many programs: Kids in Kayaks; Learn to Paddle with HHI B&GC; Charter Fishing with HHI B&GC; Kayak based clean ups of local waterways; beach and park clean ups - "plogging"; annual "keep the Broad Creek Clean" water festival; Community based oyster shell recycling and bed restoration; EarthdayHHI ; Toast to the Coast.
Last fall 540 kids participated in kids in kayaks.
The Island wide litter sweep resulted in 5,456 pounds of litter being picked up. Water way clean ups provide a great way to involve the whole family. Beach clean ups - the number one thing found on the beaches are cigarette butts, with plastic bag numbers going down, but straws still a problem. The second Saturday in June there will be a plogging, sponsored by Palmetto Running Co. 2022 had 10 litter clean ups. Earth Day 2022 had 23 different groups sweeping 18 different locations on the island - resulting in 127 bags of trash! July 27 is the Keep the Broad Creek Clean Water Festival from 4 to 7 at Shelter Cove Community Park. There will be music, crafts, critters and interactive things to do. There will be a kayak based cleanup in the afternoon. In 2018 the oyster shell recycle program and bed restoration was started. It is all volunteer and in 2022 there were 5 bagging events. Reefs were built (taking 400 - 500 bags each) for ecological purposes only. New oyster reefs are for: habitat, erosion control, food, clean water. June 8th and 9th will be the first ever Harbor Town reef build. There will be 1,000 bags dropped at high tide off the 18 hole. Schedule is: June 8 1:00 load bags; 2:30 off-load at the Quarter Deck; 4:00 high tide oyster shell bags will be dumped in the water; June 9th 9:30 walking out to rearrange the bags. The Foundation has many opportunities to participate in various projects. Visit OutsideFoundation.org to see upcoming events.