Every spring, like clockwork, volunteers board the Sunbeam with trash bags and gloves, ready to help the community on Great Cranberry Island. For more than 10 years, they have scoured the island’s beaches, filling trash bags with the debris that accumulates each winter. Douglas Cornman, Sunbeam Director, explains that this yearly cleanup is a collaboration between the Mission, Cranberry House (an island community center), and Maine Coast Heritage Trust (MCHT), which oversees several of the beaches and trails on the island.
Phil Whitney, a resident of the island who oversees the cleanup, shares that around 15 to 20 volunteers help each year, including students from the Longfellow School. The event brings together community residents and first-time island visitors alike. Douglas advertises the cleanup to the Mount Desert Island community, and each year he finds volunteers ready to help out. “It is really lovely to bring the MDI community together with the Great Cranberry community,” he says. “They’re really neighbors, but they rarely get to talk to one another. It’s a wonderful experience to see people coming together to care for the island and the community.”
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The volunteers split into groups and visit different beaches, including Preble Cove and Atlantic Shores, both stewarded by MCHT. The most common debris found during cleanups includes rope, plastic, buoys, and ghost traps—lobster traps that have been separated from their buoys. Emily, a volunteer, shared that her group found two ghost traps along with a lot of rope and buoys. Smaller items, like rope and plastic, are bagged up and brought back to the dock, where Phil collects the trash bags to bring to the transfer station.
For larger items, like the traps, Jake Sattler, MCHT’s MDI Regional Steward, steps in. MCHT uses a skiff to reach the different beaches and helps transport the larger items to the transfer station.
Sattler says the Mission is critical to making this event a success, and that the collaboration between the organizations comes naturally. “We’re both out here on the islands trying to make it better for all the people, including the visitors and the residents who live here.” He adds that he loves visiting the island during the cleanup because everyone is always excited to help out.
The community is also grateful for the volunteers’ support. Phil says the cleanup helps residents prepare for the tourists who take the short mail boat ride over to the island each summer. The volunteers, in turn, are happy to help so close to home. As Emily puts it, “Being able to come out in my own community and make a difference, it makes me feel really good.”
To learn more about the Mission’s work on unbridged islands, like Great Cranberry, visit the Island Outreach web page.
