"Do You Need A Shoe?"

It seems that every beach on the planet is a graveyard for solitary shoes. Where do they come from? Garbage dumped into the ocean? Tsunami’s and natural disasters that wash the contents of  villages, towns, and cities into the sea? Strong winds and unexpected sneaker waves?

What happens to all of those lonely shoes, the ones that clutter the beaches of the world?

While on the island of Ko Mak in Thailand, we met a Swedish couple who came up with an idea of what to do with all those lonely shoes. They created an art project, titled “Step-by-Step.“ They collected over two hundred shoes and tied them onto and from a coconut tree that leaned precariously over the warm waters off Ko Kood.  Ewa and her husband were in in Ko Mak for 10 days, on vacation from the chilly Sweden winter, and began their project in the final three days of their stay. Their project was inspired by a similar concept that they saw on Bamboo Island in Cambodia several years before. Decorative elements (in addition to shoes) were scavenged from the beach, including plastic flowers, burly sea-rope, and the title of the project (“Step-by-Step“) written on a wooden plank and hung with frayed rope.  The first shoe that began the project was sassy. It was gold. It was called “Zha-Zha.” She was the beginning of their fantastic project.

As we learned from the ‘Step-by-Step’ Giving Tree, there are many ways to affect change some of them direct, some indirect. This is our Top Ten List of Service Projects for Beach Cleaning:

#1. Start with Something

Instead of complaining try fixing something.; the world is waiting for your help. We can all make a contribution to making our world better and cleaner. If you need a reason to clean a beach, just watch children playing in the surf. Look at how much they enjoy the water, the waves, the sand. Do you want your children, your niece, your cousins, your friends children and their grandchildren to visit beaches where trash washes up on beaches and floats inside the waves? Try picking up a few pieces of trash. People will look at you funny; they are jealous. People wonder, ‘Why is this person so confident that they can make a difference in the world?’

#2. The tools for your project are in the trash

Every time we clean trash we find some useful things in the surf. When we were once stranded on a small island with little water and not enough food (it turns out we hired the town drunk to shuttle us out to this island) we found fishing line, net, hooks and lures and broken buckets which we used to catch bait, then fish, then keep the fish alive until soup time. But, there are also tools for cleaning trash, plastic bags are one of the most common forms of ocean trash. Don’t worry if they have holes in them, you can tie knots in the bags and they can carry trash. If you run out of bags, there is fishing line and rope which can be used to lash the trash into moveable piles of rubbish.

#3. Involve the immediate community

When you are cleaning, people will spontaneously smile and thank you for what you are doing. It may not have occurred to people that this effort is something you would take on. Rather than only focusing on your work, engage people, offer explanations for what you are doing, ask people if they want to help you. The Step-by-Step project not only made a statement about how we can each contribute to the care of our planet, but it also served to clean up the beach. Some of the mobile-style strands of shoes were removed, as they blocked the beach path during high tide. However, these shoes removed from the project were taken off the beach and thrown away. Sometimes our project can evolve into a sustained effort.

#4. Make your statement heard

The ‘Step-by-Step tree had a nameplate or title hung from it on driftwood. Just the name ‘Step-by-Step’ had such a powerful force. There was the idea that we have to take many steps to make an impact on cleaning the oceans and the beaches. Publish/Advertise your work to make your project continue to grow. This about who might want to see your project. Take photographs. Contact environmental organizations, the government, and the local press of TV, newspapers, or internet and tell them what you did, why and how you did it, when and where.

#5.  Have fun

Remember that you are at the beach. Have Fun!! If you get hot wade into the water, swim, or go snorkeling. Pulling trash  out of the sea is very rewarding. Not only do you stay cool and enjoy the water, but you help the living creatures have better lives. And oftentimes cleaning the beach can help you to make new friends!

#6. Combine work and learning

Cleaning beaches and oceans can be quiet and meditative work. Even if you do this work with friends or children you are likely to find your group spread out and individuals working alone. This will be a very good time to think about better ways to do a project, how to involve more people, and, most importantly, how to find alternative ways to stop pollution and trash from getting to the beach at all. We have seen many clever ways to get people involved. Trash cans that were shaped like empty logs, pandas and other animals with open mouths, 100 liter recycled barrels that were painted in art contests were but some of many ways we have seen improvisational and artistically attractive ways to get people involved. As a child in the USA, there were campaigns to change the ways people behaved toward our planet, Smokey the Bear told people how to prevent forest fires while Woodsy the Owl had a song the he sung that said ‘Give a hoot don’t pollute, we can make a better day.’ We have also largely stopped boats from letting go waste into oceans and rivers.

#7. Take some breaks

Breathe, get shade, bring water, watch the sunset and sunrise. Taking breaks remind us why we want the beaches to be clean.

#8. Review your project

Ask yourself what you are doing, can you be more effective, can you involve more people? How?

What would have happened if you  started with no plan? How do you learn just from inspiration?

#9. ‘Ready, Fire, Aim’

I have taught classes for a long time in the USA that ask the important question, ‘Why are we planning and not taking action?’ Then I learned that many projects take a different approach. They learn from their mistakes, but do not wait to have a complete plan before they try it. Instead of using the old practice, ‘ready aim fire’ they say ‘ready fire aim.’ ‘Ready Fire Aim’ means, if you want to take an action, go ahead and do it, then learn from what did not go as you planned, learn from your mistakes, and the next time make your aim better. Cleaning beaches may seem simple. However, when you have begin your project you probably do not know everything. For example, you may not find that when you pick up trash you have followed the best route, perhaps a zig-zag cleans a beach better than a straight line. Waves do not bring trash to beaches in straight lines, so why would a straight line clean a beach?

#10. Remove your trash

Your job cannot be finished until you  can get the trash off of the beach. However, if you re lucky you will pick up so much trash you cannot carry it all away. When the ‘Step-by-Step’ artists first brought back their shoes to the ’Giving Tree’ they left it above the tree. In the night the tide was high, so when they returned they found much of their work had washed back into the sea. If you can’t carry all the trash off the beach, always move it very high above where you think the ocean cannot possibly reach.