FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For information, contact:
Carolyn Masten
SunStream Hotels & Resorts
(239) 765-4111 (office)
@SunStreampr (Twitter)
CarolynM@SunStream.com
www.SunStream.com

GULLWING AND POINTE ESTERO BEACH RESORTS PROVIDE EXCLUSIVE
CHECK-IN SITES FOR 2009 INTERNATIONAL COASTAL CLEANUP

Fort Myers Beach, FL – August 24, 2009 – Each year, volunteers from around the world spend a few hours removing trash and debris from beaches, lakes, rivers and other waterways keeping track of every piece of trash they find. The Ocean Conservancy (www.oceanconservancy.org) uses that information to produce the world’s only annual country-by-country, state-by-state index of the problem of marine debris. Last year, nearly 400,000 world-wide volunteers removed and tallied 6.8 million pounds of debris, from 6,485 sites in 100 countries and 42 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

On Saturday, September 19, 2009 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, local volunteers in conjunction with Keep Lee County Beautiful will be scouring the beaches and waterways of Lee County to collect debris and record the findings. There are seven official Check in Sites with an additional location being added at the GullWing and Pointe Estero Beach Resorts on Fort Myers Beach. This meeting site will be the exclusive location for Cub Scout Pack 11 and Girl Scout Troops 353, 373, 405 and 406 from Lehigh Acres. Together with group organizers and parents, girls and boys from Kindergarten through 10th grade will hit the beach armed with data cards and pencils, latex gloves, trash bags and cold beverages. “This is the groups first time participating in the Coastal Cleanup and they are very excited to be able to help keep a portion of Fort Myers Beach clean,” states Trish Fancher, Program Director of Keep Lee County Beautiful, Inc.

The two goals of the cleanup are to remove unsightly and environmentally harmful debris from Florida’s coastlines and raise awareness about this preventable litter problem. Litter poses a threat to wildlife – plastic bags are mistaken for jellyfish and eaten by sea turtles. Lost and discarded fishing tackle is eaten by birds and becomes an entangling trap to many types of animal life. “The ocean is our life support system yet marine debris continues to threaten its health. We know that trash travels. Wherever we live, each of us has a responsibility to prevent litter from trashing our beaches and hurting coastal economies, injuring and killing marine wildlife, and choking an already threatened ocean ecosystem,” said Vikki Spruill President and CEO of Ocean Conservancy. “Trash in the ocean is one of the most widespread pollution problems threatening our ocean and waterways and it’s entirely preventable.”

The annual cleanup is organized by The Ocean Conservancy, and is coordinated locally by Keep Lee County Beautiful, Inc. In 2008, more than 950 volunteers, including divers, turned out to clean up Lee County beaches and thanks to their efforts, approximately 4,500 pounds of trash and monofilament fishing line was collected from the area’s coastline and waterways. For further information on The International Coastal Cleanup as well as other special projects and programs, please visit the Keep Lee County Beautiful website at www.klcb.org.

SunStream Hotels & Resorts vision has made it the largest and most successful independent, locally-owned and operated resort company in Southwest Florida. Headquartered in Fort Myers Beach, SunStream Hotels & Resorts has specialized in property development and hospitality management since 1986. SunStream’s distinctive collection of properties in Southwest Florida now includes the Bellasera Hotel, Park Shore Resort, Port of the Islands Resort & Marina, DiamondHead Beach Resort, GullWing Beach Resort, Pointe Estero Beach Resort and opening in November 2009, the Resort at MarinaVillage – a luxurious full-service condominium resort located at Tarpon Point Marina in Cape Coral with 19 stories of sweeping views of the Caloosahatchee River, San Carlos Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.

For more information on SunStream Hotels & Resorts or to book a reservation, please call 800-625-4111 or visit www.sunstream.com.

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Tags: Conserve, Fort Myers Beach Condominium Resort, Fort Myers Beach Events, Fort Myers Beach Resorts, GullWing Beach Resort, International Coastal Cleanup, Keep Lee County Beautiful, Ocean Conservancy, Pointe Estero, SunStream Hotels and Resorts

This entry was posted on Monday, August 24th, 2009 at 2:29 pm and is filed under Outdoor Adventures, Press, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.