We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Carrie Auerbach. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Carrie below.
Carrie, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
I grew up in Buffalo, NY and moved to Philadelphia in 1982 where I raised my son who still lives there with his wife.
I decided to change my world nine years ago and move to St Petersburg. My life dream always was to live without snow amongst palm trees!
Walking the beach, i always picked up random trash and my friend and I thought, “how hard can it be to keep a 4 mile island clean?” Ha! Well, it takes a community of like-minded people to work together! As time passed, the reality is, it’s about education and a constant message of a culture of a clean beach community.
I joined the Keep Pinellas Beautiful organization about 6 months after I started organized beach cleanups. They provide tremendous support, not just in supplies, but assistance in seeing creative ideas come to fruition.
It has been 5 years now. Between my monthly cleanups (every second Saturday) and cleanups after major holidays, I keep quite busy. We also go out to the beach on busy days and hand out trash bags…especially during Spring Break!
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Volunteerism is incredibly rewarding. I have been retired for almost 2 years now and my efforts are now full time. I’ve learned many life lessons in taking risks. Some good, some not so. But if you don’t try, how will you ever know what you can accomplish? My career was in sales and my boss always said, “go for the no”.
One of the best parts of my volunteerism is who really can say ‘no’ to helping the environment? If it’s an ask to use some space for volunteer parking or going in front of a large organization to ask for assistance with supplies, ask!
One risk was finding a solution to eliminate personal fireworks on the beach. Because there is a law allowing people to bring their own fireworks on July 4 and December 31st, I worked with the City to dig into other ordinances where we found 3 that superseded fireworks. We had a major social media campaign and virtually eliminated all fireworks on our beach on 4th of July. Good for the environment and good for the safety of others.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Social media is my tool. I spend a lot of time cross posting to environmental pages. Keep Pinellas Beautiful shares all of the events, as well.
It’s important to post educational information to share knowledge whether it’s about microplastics, turtles, climate change or just beautiful nature. Have a great relationship with the City staff helps too!
We have over 60 Beach Ambassadors that patrol the beach for trash, educate our visitors about our turtles (filling in holes, knocking down castles and keeping the beach dark at night). People love to volunteer and get involved, so by promoting being part of a group helps alot!
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
They sent me to an amazing college (Rochester Institute of Technology) which founded my entire career.
My parents were very supportive of every chance I took in life and let me stumble till they picked me up and showed me a better way.
I am forever in their debt.
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- Youtube: @TreasureIslandAdoptABeach
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