Our currently scheduled Flash Sweeps of 2024 are listed below -
Tuesday, August 13, 8:30 AM - We will be at East 64th access. Look for the signs.
July 28, 2024 - Our fourth “Flash Sweep” had us cleaning the East 40th access with some great volunteers! Thanks for cleaning with us, and be sure to join us for out August 13 sweep!
July 14, 2024 - Our third “Flash Sweep” at East 35th access netted a garden shovel! These are not necessary for the beach! Please limit your beach shovels to the cute little plastic shovels that come with the buckets :)
June 28, 2024 - Our second “Flash Sweep” of the summer was at West 54th access, and we did collect a few pieces of plastic that could harm our wildlife.
June 14, 2024 - Our first “Flash Sweep” of the year, and we had just one person join the Beach Preservation crew - and we appreciate her coming out! This week was a quick pick up at the Point parking lot access.
August 9, 2023 - Look at this great team that came out today to help with our Flash Sweep! I even had a cousin come all the way down from Ohio just to help. Now if she was willing to fly all this way to do a Flash Sweep wouldn't you like to join us for our next Flash Sweep??
July 26, 2023 - Let's add another great Flash Sweep for this season! A huge thank you to Oak Island Accommodations for putting together a team to come out on this beautiful day and help clean up the West 5th street access. Great to have such a nice crew to help keep our beaches clean!
July 10, 2023: A big thank you to the volunteers who turned out this morning for our Flash Sweep. After a holiday, it is even more important to check our access points and help keep our beach clean.
June 26, 2023: Thank you for the volunteers who came out this morning to help us do our Flash Sweep. As you can see just 5 minutes of cleaning can help keep our wonderful beaches clean for everyone.
June 11, 2023: We had our first Flash Sweep of the season at the East 76 Street access. A huge thank you to everyone who came out. For what looked like a clean area everyone was amazed how much we were able to pick up in just 5 minutes. Check out the photos below. A special thank you to Jack's family and their dog!
In recent summers Beach Preservation held weekly beach cleanups at individual access areas. We called these FLASH SWEEPS, because people came in like a Flash Mob, cleaned for 5 minutes, and made a big impact on beach safety and cleanliness! In 2019, 8 Flash Sweeps involved 134 adults and 10 children. For each location, from Mercer Street to 17th West, an Adopt-a-Beach Access host welcomed volunteers, described Beach Preservation activities and mission, and set rules for collection. The largest category of debris was cigarette butts: 1453! Plastic pieces were next at 284, then food wrappers, 174. These give us an idea of where our education efforts need to focus for Oak Island's beach!
If you can’t join us for these scheduled FLASH SWEEPS, you are encouraged to do solo collections individually or in small groups, and post them on our Facebook page as #litterbyeOKI. This option is still available and welcome! Instructions are here.
We expect to continue these popular Flash Sweep events each summer as BPS Inc. Watch our postings on Facebook to see what's happening: Oak Island Beach Preservation Society, Inc.