Ocean Hour FL, a grassroots organization dedicated to keeping our state’s waterways free from litter, is welcoming volunteers to its weekly cleanups, held Saturdays from 8:45 to 10 a.m. at various locations.

Justin Riney founded Ocean Hour Florida in 2013, after paddleboarding the entire Florida coast to highlight the need for cleaning up the shorelines. The organization was created from his notion that if everyone in the world would set aside an hour a week to clean up along a waterway, we could make a difference. Ocean Hour volunteers removed more than 5,000 pounds of marine debris in 2016. 

This month’s cleanups are scheduled for March 4 at Naval Live Oaks Visitor Center and Headquarters at Gulf Islands National Seashore on Highway 98, two miles east of Gulf Breeze proper; March 11 at Chimney Park, 5500 Scenic Highway, and Bay Bluffs Park, 3400 Scenic Highway, both in Pensacola; March 18 at Project Green Shores in Wayside Park West, Bayfront Parkway at Three Mile Bridge, and William Bartram Park, 211 Bayfront Parkway, both in Pensacola; and March 25 at Fort Pickens pier in Pensacola Beach.

Sign-in at the cleanup site is at 8.45 a.m., cleanup is from 9 to 10 a.m. and trash is weighed and data collected at 10 a.m. To sign up, visit OceanHourFL.com.