Julie Travis, a beach lover for several decades, calls the sand and sea in Delray Beach her refuge on the weekends.
She noticed that the beauty of the beach was increasingly being spoiled as it became more popular. So she decided to do something about it by combining her love of mermaids as a youth with her ongoing love of the beach. The Trashy Mermaids were born as a result.
“It was my idea to do the beach cleanups because I go to the beach every weekend and I watch people leave their trash behind them,” Travis said. “It was making me so mad that I told myself that I have to do something, rather than just complaining.”
Julie Travis picks up some unidentifiable trash from the beach. (Scott Luxor/Contributor/Contributor)
She said she realized that what she wanted to accomplish was going to take more than just her own efforts to make a dent in the sandy scraps. So she decided to reach out to friends to recruit like-minded people to her effort.
“I checked with a few friends and people I know to see if they might be interested in meeting at the beach and doing a cleanup,” Travis said. “Then afterward, I told them we could hang around and have lunch. This first outing was a bit of a test to see if anybody was interested. And it worked out really well.”
She decided she wanted to make the cleanup effort fun. She came up with the idea of the Trashy Mermaids because it combines two of her passions, which are cleaning up the beach and the mythic creature of the sea.
Julie Travis (Julie Travis/Courtesy)
“I have loved mermaids since I was a little girl, and now it seems everybody loves mermaids,” she said. “I moved to Florida 30 years ago because I love the beach. I still go there every weekend for my getaway. I haven’t gotten sick of it yet.”
A volunteer carefully picks up unidentified trash during the cleanup effort. (Scott Luxor / Contributor)
Travis loves mermaids so much that a birthday gift from a relative reflected her two loves.
“One of my cousins gave me a surprise birthday gift of a mermaid photoshoot,” she said. “She had a company come and they dressed my friends and I up and gave us mermaid tails. We did the photoshoot on the beach, which was a lot of fun. It’s not very easy to maneuver in a mermaid tail, by the way.”
The Trashy Mermaids name she came up with for her volunteer effort felt so strong to her that she decided to brand it on clothing for volunteers.
“A girl I used to work with started a T-shirt company, so I contacted her to ask her if she could make Trashy Mermaids shirts to give to people who participated with me,” Travis said. “I wanted to give them some incentive for the very first event.”
She said she thought it would be good to try the effort, beginning with herself and a friend. They quickly realized that they were going to need more than just the two of them to have an impact.
“We started doing it, just the two of us. But then we decided that we should get other people to do it too,” Travis said. “We have full-time jobs, plus I’m a part-time caretaker for my 92-year-old mother. But I wanted to give this bigger effort a try.”
The volunteers posed for a group shot before hitting the sand to clean up. (Julie Travis/Courtesy)
Everything worked out for the first effort. A fairly large number of volunteers turned out for the common effort to make Delray Beach a cleaner place. Enlisting the help of friends made a difference.
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“My friend Wendy Whelan volunteered to set up a Facebook page to help us get the information out,” Travis said. “I think people really like helping and it makes them feel good to do something nice. People really want to help. I think everybody wants to do something where they feel they’re helping the environment.”
While she said she doesn’t have the time to pursue her bigger wish for plastic to be banned from the beaches, she’s content right now just to pick up garbage, along with friends, and encourage other people to pick up their own garbage. Plus, she loves having a good time with others in the pursuit of a good goal.
“We have a lot of fun,” Travis said. “The most fun is meeting new like-minded people and people who love the beach. Everybody stayed there at least for a couple of hours and they all got to know some new people. Two people who I met on the beach are now already committed to coming to the next beach cleanup in June.”
A volunteer carefully picks up a discarded medical mask during the cleanup effort. (Scott Luxor / Contributor)
She said she plans to have Trashy Mermaids do a regular cleanup every month with the hope that it will grow organically.
“It starts with two people, who tell two friends, and they’ll tell two friends. It can multiply like that. The more people who are willing to pick up trash, the cleaner the beach will be for the next generation.”
