Beach Cleanup on Earth Day

Imagine working for a company that lets you leave work early to go to the beach! Internet Matrix, Inc. did just that on on Friday, April 7, 2011 by organizing a beach cleanup event in celebration for National Earth Day. Internet Matrix employees were encouraged to leave work several hours early to join the cleanup event at the beach and help do their part towards making our beaches beautiful. For the 34 employees who participated, iMatrix also provided barbeque food, fun activities, and several beach-friendly games. The event was a huge success, with quite a variety of trash collected and disposed of properly.

First originated in 1970, Earth Day is considered by many to mark the beginning of the modern environmental movement. Back then, the state or health of the environment was not something most people considered. In fact, the smell of air pollution was commonly thought of as the smell of success or prosperity! The idea that humans should be taking care of the environment hadn't even entered the public's consciousness.

Since then, a lot has happened to make humans more aware of their impact on the environment. Many campaigns and groups have dedicated their time to making the public aware of what they can do to help the environment. Anyone can make a difference by reducing emissions, creating less trash, and recycling the resources we already have.

Julie Klens, HR Manager and Controller for Internet Matrix, Inc., helped organize the beach cleanup event with the help of the Internet Matrix Event Planning Committee. When asked about why they chose to do a beach cleanup, Julie said, "I wanted to do something to commemorate Earth Day and help the environment, but I also wanted to make sure that whatever event we planned would be fun for the employees. Public spots such as beaches tend to collect trash and things can get quite messy without anyone to help pick things up, and we felt that turning the beach cleanup into a half workday with food and games would make everyone more likely to participate."

And participate they did. Not only was the beach cleanup a success, but nearly the entire staff of Internet Matrix came out to show their support.