Island Park rallies to clean up Masone Beach

Jacklyn Rizera helped pick up garbage from the tall grass.

Shane Molinari/Herald

Jack Ciccimarro and his buddy Jude Hassett helped keep the moral up at the beach cleanup.

Shane Molinari/Herald

Dr. Rosmarie Bovino, Superintendent of Schools for Island Park, volunteered some of her time to help clean the beach.

Shane Molinari/Herald

Wood, chairs, plastic and more was but a small portion of the trash that volunteers collected and removed from Masone Beach over the weekend.

Shane Molinari/Herald

A barge for garbage use was donated by the Town of Hempstead to help clean the beach.

Shane Molinari/Herald

Jacklyn Rizera 7, left, Grace Sanzone, 8, and Mrs. Sanzone were among the many volunteers that helped clean up Masone Beach.

Shane Molinari/Herald

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Inspired by a cleanup in East Rockaway in March, Island Park resident Tommy Asher organized a cleanup for Masone Beach, and the entire community backed him up.

Town of Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray donated a garbage barge to the effort, which was docked off the Masone Beach swimming pier to give boaters a safe place to unload garbage from the small islands in the channel they were cleaning. Liotta Bros. donated a dumpster for the wood collected, and the Unity Party of Island Park covered food for all the volunteers, courtesy of the Pops Hot Dog Truck on Austin Boulevard and Bucky’s Ice Cream Truck.

Aided by Operation SPLASH (Stop Polluting, Littering And Save Harbors), the volunteers managed to clean hundreds of pounds of waste off the beach.