This past Saturday was the most recent in a series of citywide cleanups organized by Annalise Mannix, assistant deputy city manager for the city of Key West, and the Chamber of Commerce’s Love Your Island program. To say it was a success is an understatement. What an exciting thing to see so many people come out on a Saturday morning and give up a great part of their weekend to show their concern and personal responsibility for our island.

In attendance were Mayor Morgan McPherson, newlyelected City Commissioner
Teri Johnston, Assistant City Manager John Jones, mayoral candidate Jimmy Weekley, City Commission candidate Richard Klitenick and Utility Board candidate Ty Symroski. It was good to see these folks out there “walking the walk.”

Just as important (if not more so) was the event’s original organizer, Lake Andrews, and ... too many [organizations and] individuals to list here. To all, thank you for setting the example of how we should all demonstrate our individual responsibility.
You demonstrated a personal commitment to making this an island of which we can all
be proud. You took individual responsibility which, in today’s world, is easy to not do.

The message of the Chamber of Commerce Love Your Island program (www.loveyourisland.com) is that we have a basic choice. One is to be overwhelmed
by the enormity of what is happening on our planet and say either, “I can’t do anything about it because what I do personally doesn’t matter.” Another is that each one of us can recognize the fact that, “By myself, I can’t change much of anything. But I can do something. Together we can change everything.” If you are looking for a time, a reason or a way to get involved, I invite you to take a look at www.loveyourisland.com. We believe that Key West is small enough and that we have enough of a majority of concerned citizens who live here to make Key West a showplace for environmental solutions.

Chris Belland
Key West