During the summer months, Christian Brothers Academy students spend a whole lot of time at Jersey Shore beaches.

This August, 17 Academy men took the meaning of “beach day” to the next level participating in the Surfrider Foundation’s beach cleanup.

The Surfrider Foundation is an organization that works to keep beaches clean through various cleanups. They also push for new laws on the regulation of trash and littering. The foundation encourages local restaurants to be ocean-friendly with their ingredients and products, giving ocean-friendly certificates to restaurants that are deemed so.

There are 176 chapters and student organizations through the foundation that aim to spread the mission and awareness about the protection of beach and ocean life through various means of cleanup and communication.

The idea originated when these National Honor Society students were looking to complete some summer service hours.

“Helping to reduce the amount of trash in Sea Bright that piles up on the beaches is just a small part of a very important issue going on in our world,” said Chris Ern ’22. “We felt that participating in an ocean cleanup through the Surfrider Foundation would be an important way to give back and help out at a place we are at so much during the summer: the beach.”

With the success of these outings, the students are primed to continue their relationship with the foundation in future years.