Members of the Alabama Power Service Organization (APSO) recently participated in the 26th annual Coastal Cleanup in Mobile and Baldwin Counties. Thousands of volunteers at 27 different sites participated in the annual event. The Alabama Power team picked up trash along the Mobile Causeway.

Over the previous quarter century, about 70,000 volunteers have removed more than 1.4 million pounds of debris from Alabama’s coastline and waterways during the annual cleanup. The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Coastal Section and Alabama People Against A Littered State (PALS) work together to organize the event each year. It is part of the larger International Coastal Cleanup led by The Ocean Conservancy.

Sponsors of the 2013 cleanup included the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Mobile Bay National Estuary Program, The Original Oyster House, Bebo’s, ExxonMobil, Alabama Power Company, Alabama Seafood Association, Alabama Department of Transportation, Compass Media, Ike’s Beach Service, LuLu’s, Vulcan Materials Company, ALFA, Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, Alabama Farmer’s Cooperative, City of Gulf Shores, City of Orange Beach, Baldwin County Commission, Gulf Shores/Orange Beach Tourism and The Ocean Conservancy.

The Alabama Power Service Organization includes more than 4,000 Alabama Power, Southern Nuclear and Southern Company Services employees and their families. APSO is a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) organization whose members focus their efforts on helping nonprofit groups and charitable projects that promote education, environment and community enhancement and meet critical human needs. From ten chapters across the state, APSO members typically donate more than 50,000 volunteer hours to local communities each year.