“The philosophy behind Love Your Island is that Key West is not unlike Mother Earth,” said Co-Chair, Chris Belland.  “What really grabbed me was when I first saw the famous photograph of the earth taken from outer space.  It drove home the point of how much of an island the earth is and, of course, so is Key West.  No matter how we look at it, there is no place for garbage and toxic chemicals to go but in our own environment.  It was when Annalise Mannix from the City of Key West called me to see if the Chamber of Commerce would be interested in participating in the island wide cleanup that the inspiration for Love Your Island was born.”

In April, the City had its first citywide cleanup in many years.  It was an extension of the philosophy behind Earth Day which happened the week before the major cleanup.  “I felt that the message that needed to get across was that we all need to stop asking when are ‘They’ going to do something about it and realize that ‘We’ are ‘They’,” said Mannix, the Stormwater Engineer for the City of Key West who is responsible for stormwater drainage.  “It’s up to us not to rely on an already overburdened City Public Works Department and start realizing that we all need to get involved in the process of getting our island clean and keeping it that way.  It’s more than just a one-time clean up – it’s got to be a way of life that includes planting the right kind of plants (the ones that need less water) and considering what we use to wash our clothes and what kind of pesticides we are putting on our lawns because, again … it doesn’t just disappear.  Pesticides, fertilizers and animal waste that are not properly used or disposed of all wash off into the near shore water and affect our most precious resource, the ocean."