Volunteers from the community came together to come to Durand Eastman Beach Sunday morning to clean up the beach. 


What You Need To Know

  • Over 80 volunteers came together at Durand Eastman Beach Sunday morning to clean up the beach

  • Zeyba, a local eco-friendly clothing store, teamed up with the city of Rochester for the effort

  • People picked up tires and tiki torches, and even climbed trees to get balloons

"We came out here to have fun, just clean up the beach, bring people together, kind of bring a positive group of people together during this time of concern and weirdness with COVID and everything," said Rachael Critchley, team leader for the green team. 

Zeyba, a local eco-friendly clothing store, teamed up with the city of Rochester for the effort. They broke into four groups to tackle the cleanup process.

"People have picked up tires, people have picked up tiki torches, they climbed trees to get balloons, all sorts of stuff, endless cigarette buds. The beach is a really sad place, a lot of people don't take care of it," said Stefano Daza, Zeyba founder. 

Susan Johnson recently moved back to the area from Los Angeles. She just knew she had to come and make a difference. 

"And to see pollution still taking place in Rochester is beyond me. The slogan growing up here was 'give a hoot, don't pollute'," said Johnson. 

Some volunteers who came to clean up the beach are hoping that their small effort can go a long way. 

"Pollution is real and it really leads a really big impact on our land and the world, so it's important to clean up after ourselves," said Emily Match, a volunteer.  

"Yeah just little steps like coming out, there is like 100 people here or something like that. I think stuff like that can really impact our community in a positive way," said Anthony Licata, a volunteer.