The second Realtor Action Day organized by the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors saw huge growth, increasing from 400 volunteers in 2015 to 580 in 2016. “This has grown into our biggest event of the year,” said WRAR President Don Harris. “We teamed up with the Coastal Federation at Carolina Beach State Park to both plant marsh grass and remove garbage from the coastline, and are much appreciative of their support.” The Coastal Federation coastal education coordinator, Ted Wilgis assisted the effort by providing marsh grass, tools, and training to the volunteers.
The group of agents, inspectors and sponsors braved cold weather, gale winds and high tide and got an incredible amount of work done. They installed 1,750 salt marsh plant seedlings to help restore salt marsh habitat along the living shoreline project in the park. Additionally, they picked up about 150 pounds of marine debris during the shoreline cleanup. Despite challenging conditions, the volunteers were dedicated and enthusiastic.
“Planting sea oats has been educational and fun, thanks to the help of the Coastal Federation,” said Terri Shindel, volunteer captain for the event. “Now I understand why preserving our coastline is as important as attracting new jobs to the area. It’s a quality of life issue.”
Other projects for the day included planting 15,000 sea oats at Topsail Beach, Wrightsville Beach, and Carolina Beach, cleaning up 8 New Hanover County parks, and installing a community garden at St. John’s Episcopal Church.
“It was a great day,” said Wilgis.
For more information, contact Shane Johnson at WRAR at shane@wrar.com or 910-762-1692.