More than 50 volunteers participated in a shoreline cleanup at Udalls Cove on Sunday, Nov. 23, following the efforts of two high school juniors who helped promote the initiative. According to Joseph Shemesh, one of the teens who coordinated the event, a representative of the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee said the cleanup was “the biggest contribution they had so far.”
Many of the volunteers were teens, young families and Boy Scouts, Shemesh said.
“Usually, it’s like adults doing these things,” Shemesh said. “So to have a bunch of younger families just contributing and loving it – it was pretty great.”
Udalls Cove is an inlet of Little Neck Bay, part of Long Island Sound, between the Douglaston and Great Neck peninsulas.
The cleanup focused on removing plastic that washes ashore in Udalls Cove under the supervision of Walter Mugdan, head of the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee. Shemesh said Mugdan explained that plastic from storms travels through sewers and “gets caught up in all these bushes” along the shoreline.
Volunteers spent about three hours gathering “tiny bits of plastic” along with larger items such as cups, Shemesh said. Mugdan also provided environmental information during the event, Shemesh said, including how the debris has changed over time. He said Mugdan told participants that, since plastic bags were banned in New York, the litter now consists mostly of smaller pieces that are harder to collect. Shemesh said Mugdan also showed volunteers osprey nests, swallow nests and crab shells, and explained how he builds structures for the birds to live in.
Shemesh and Shirel Uzan, both Great Neck residents and high school juniors, helped spearhead the effort. Shemesh attends Ramaz Upper School in Manhattan and Uzan attends North Shore High School in Great Neck.
Participants also turned the cleanup into a friendly competition. “We even had some competitions,” Shemesh said. “Who could find the weirdest thing in the trash? There were some remote controls found, pumpkins.”
Shemesh said they publicized the event through flyers and a Great Neck Estates group chat.
“We want to get a lot of younger families to help contribute to a community,” he said.
