HANALEI — Firecrackers are great, until you have to clean up afterward. More than 40 volunteers — the majority coming from the resort business community including the St. Regis Princeville, the Westin at Princeville and the Makai Golf Club —
HANALEI — Firecrackers are great, until you have to clean up afterward.
More than 40 volunteers — the majority coming from the resort business community including the St. Regis Princeville, the Westin at Princeville and the Makai Golf Club — rose before dawn Monday to scour the beaches of Hanalei at the 9th annual After the Fireworks Community Beach Clean-up.
“We must get the red paper before it gets into the ocean,” one volunteer said, using his hands to sift through the powdery Hanalei Bay sand, capturing bits of spent fireworks.
Passing showers helped cool volunteers, but made the chore of picking up the paper a soggy affair.
Red paper, while considered a good luck symbol during New Year celebrations, contains residue of the explosive materials used to create the firecracker. Another concern were the metal rods that started out as sparklers.
“Metal is dangerous,” a volunteer said. “I found this beach chair, or what used to be a beach chair, in one of the fires. There were also at least 15 to 20 sparkler rods.”
Stephanie Kaluahine Read of the St. Regis Princeville said the annual beach clean-up following the Fourth of July celebration is a community event and the group works with the county to move trash so it’s more convenient for county crews to pick up.
“We have about 40 volunteers including people from the community who come out to help,” Read said. “The people from the Makai Golf Club came early this morning, around 6-ish, and already cleaned up the Hanalei Pier.”
Anna Lee Hulm of North Dakota was one of the volunteers, serving as a Westin intern from the University of Hawai‘i Travel Industry Management school.
“North Dakota is a land-locked state so we don’t have beaches,” said Hulm, majoring in food and beverage service. “This is my first beach clean-up.”
People enjoying a morning walk stopped to chat with the volunteers, one pair noting that they used to tote plastic shopping bags on the day after the Fourth of July to help clean the beaches.
“We’ve been doing this for nine years,” Read said. “There are a lot of parties in this area, especially on the holidays. But people have been very conscientious and there hasn’t been that much rubbish.”
Milton Sgarbi, the general manager of the St. Regis Princeville, joined the group in sprucing up the areas of potentially dangerous material for beach-goers.
“OK, now that this is under control, I have to go to work at my other job,” he said.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com.
