Be The Change - Join Us for The 2024 MLK Cleanup in St. Augustine

We are so excited to team up with the West Augustine Nature Society for their MLK Day of Service Cleanup Event for the second year in a row. Last year we had more than 150 volunteers come out to clean up in the streets around the Pinehurst and San Sebastian Cemeteries and the cemeteries also got lots of help.

It is going to be an amazing event and we promise that you will get the chills in one way or the other. Seeing the community come out in such numbers always warms our hearts.

Breakfast is provided by local West Augustine realtor Elizabeth Jennings and local realtor Kate Mitchell from One Sotheby's, and Ben & Jerry's St. Augustine is offering our volunteers ice cream after the event. We will also have raffle prizes from our many wonderful community partners, and there will be free plants available from Dancing Treetops and Earth Guy Rye.

If you're looking to be a part of the change, if you're looking to make a difference, and if you're looking to spend your Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service in a way that will make you, your friends, and your family feel connected to history and the historic events that happened in St. Augustine during the civil rights movement, this is it.

Come join us, and after the event follow us and participate in the Silent March downtown organized by the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Committee of St. Johns County.

This year’s theme from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Committee of St. Johns County is “America: Be True to What You Said on Paper.”

We promise you that you will be inspired when you see the siblings from the West Augustine Nature Society put on yet another community event. They prove that age doesn't matter, if you have the will, you can make a difference.

The West Augustine Nature Society started out on New Year's Eve in 2019 when the five siblings got fed up with seeing all the trash on the road in our community, and while they held many events without much participation, they persisted.

When the Interact Club from St. Augustine High School came out to join them for their MLK Day event one year, the siblings expected to find a handful of people but were met with a crowd of volunteers.

After the event, they had a mountain of trash bags to get rid of. Until then, they had brought the trash bags home to go out with the regular trash pickup. This is when they contacted the county and were put in touch with Mr. Denny from the St. Johns County Adopt-A-Road program.

The St. Johns County Adopt-A-Road program lends the group grabbers and vests and supplies them with trash bags to minimize the cost involved with hosting a cleanup.

MLK Day Cleanup

Last year the West Augustine Nature Society approached us to team up because they were overwhelmed with the number of volunteers, and they didn't want to turn anyone away. So, they asked if they could host their MLK day event by the cemeteries. We are so grateful that they did and so impressed by the turnout.

So come join us, let's make a difference together.

What to Expect on January 15, 2024

8 - 10 a.m. Community and cemetery cleanup in West Augustine. Parking at 252 N Mc Laughlin Street, St. Augustine Florida. Please dress warm, bring grabbers, gloves, and your own water bottles. If you’re doing the cemetery cleanup, bring gloves and gardening tools such as clippers, rakes, and pruners.

10:30 a.m. Meet at 86 MLK Avenue, St. Augustine to participate in the Silent March. The marches will walk together from St. Paul AME Church where Martin Luther King, Jr, once spoke to the Plaza de La Constitución in downtown St. Augustine. More info at www.mlksjc.org

11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Music, song, and spoken word at the Plaza de La Constitución.

For more information, please visit the West Augustine Nature Society website www.westaugustinenaturesociety.org or check out their Instagram or Facebook pages.

For questions about the event, or if you are a local business, organization, church, school, club, or individual who wants to be a part of the change on an ongoing basis, or if you want to treat our volunteers reach out to westaugustinenaturesociety@gmail.com for community cleanup events and to westaugimprovementassoc@gmail.com for cemetery cleanup events.

We are so incredibly thankful for all of our amazing MLK Day Community partners.

💓 The West Augustine Nature Society

💓 The St. Augustine Connection

💓 Elizabeth Jennings Real Estate Agent, One Sotheby's International Realty

💓 Kate Mitchell Realtor, One Sotheby's International Realty

💓 Ben & Jerry's St. Augustine

💓 Dancing Treetops

💓 EarthGuyRye

💓 Compassionate St Augustine & Good Trouble

💓 Nu Epsilon Sigma Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.

💓 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

💓 Omega Phi Omega of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority