Volunteers Clean up after Debby in Downtown Gulfport

When Sandy Duffy, Volunteer Coordinator with the Gulfport Merchants Association, put out a call for help, people answered. Duffy helped organize a community cleanup on Saturday in downtown Gulfport. Tropical Storm Debby left a mess in Gulfport and a handful of volunteers, including Mayor Mike Yakes, came out to clean it all up.

The following photos were sent in from Sandy Duffy. Duffy thanked volunteers with this Facebook post, which she also shared with Gulfport Patch.

"Most of you know that Debby made one heck of a mess in our City and our Parks and Recreation Department worked their butts off to put things back in order. In an effort to help them with a thankless job, a group of eight Gulfport ladies and one token male, with smiles bigger than this town, gathered Saturday morning to put some finishing touches on Beach Blvd. KUDOS AND A HUGE THANK YOU to Bistra Wos, Diane Griffith, Jan Netherland, Karen Vanderbeek, Linda Warsham, Margo Rose, Stone Handy and Vivian Hawker. Another HUGE THANK YOU goes out to our City Mayor, Mike Yakes for making certain there was a pick-up to haul all the trash bags and debris....AND, he drove the truck himself!!! These folks have a tremendous amount of pride and love for the City they live in and it truly showed today.

We would also like to send a special thank you to Bob Williams for making sure there were trash receptacles for the mess we collected, Walgreens Pharmacy for donating gloves, TLC Food Mart for trash bags, Pia's, for a "plug-in" for the blower where there was no power, Neptune Grill and Lori Rosso for the ice cold water to keep us hydrated, and T and Me for getting us all started with hot coffee!!

It takes a village!!!!!!"

Well said, Sandy!