The 20th Annual Coastal Cleanup drew many youth to Mobile Bay in Fairhope to help in the annual event, said Fairhope Zone Captain Gary Gover.

“We had Girls Scouts and Brownies, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Tiger Scouts, some church groups and science and environmental clubs from the schools,” he said.

Among the young people participating were Allie Fletcher (9) and Sarah Templeton (10), both students at Fairhope Intermediate School. Sarah’s mother, Missy Templeton, brought them and worked alongside them. It was their third year to participate in the event.

“I want to teach them that life’s not just about them,” Missy Templeton said.

However, adults were to be found walking the beaches, too. Sally DeMott and Gaye Lindsey, both newcomers to the Fairhope area — they just moved here in March from McLean, Va. — also took part.

“We moved here because of traffic,” said DeMott. Lindsey, a Bay Minette native, added that they wanted to help preserve the area.

Gover estimates about 250 participated in the Fairhope Zone cleanup, collecting about 4,000 pounds of debris, or “two tons of junk,” as he put it.

“It is a 100 percent increase in materials collected over last year,” he said, adding that it surprised him since we hadn’t had a storm so far this year.

Among the items collected in his zone were several refrigerator doors, many crab traps, tires, various hunks of plastic and a lot of lumber and building materials, he said.

Participants were given a T-shirt and treated to an 11 a.m. hotdog lunch furnished by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and State Lands Coastal Division.

Key sponsors for the event were: Alabama PALS, NOAA and ADEM. The Ocean Conservancy was the main coordinator, Gover said.

Corporate sponsors included: Vulcan, Exxon Mobil, Bebo’s, the cities of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Southern Breeze, Original Oyster House and the Mobile Bay NEP.