Right On, Citrus County (FL)!

(Above: Hair and fur to be shipped out, so they can become hair booms to absorb oil in the Gulf of Mexico.)

I spent part of today driving around Citrus County with a car full of hair and fur. Four bags of it -- two picked up from the From Head To Toe salon and two from Best Friends Grooming Salon, both in the county seat of Inverness.

A while back I'd seen this article ("Hair, pantyhose and other donations sought to sop up oil spill in gulf") in the St. Petersburg Times. That took me to the Make Mine Bluegreen site and to the Matter of Trust Hair for Oil Spills Program (their instructions for the program are here.)

Make Mine Bluegreen recently held a collection event at Weekie Wachee Springs -- their wish list (including towels, nylons, steel wool pads, and other cleaning supplies) is here (.pdf). Closer to where I live, the Homosassa Springs State Wildlife Refuge is also collecting Gulf spill clean-up items at its admin office.

I signed up for the Matter of Trust program. They coordinate temporary warehouses across the Gulf and across the country, where needed, to collect hair and fur for oil spill clean-up. The hair and fur are inserted into nylons and made into booms, which soak up the oil spills. The temporary warehouses are just that, given the volume of material that comes in. As they fill up, new locations sign on to help store the load.

After storing my four bags in the garage, I popped over to my local Winn-Dixie and filled my car again, this time with boxes. I now have two large boxes ready to go and a third that's partially filled, and plan to get my first shipment out tomorrow.

I don't always catch the local news and hadn't this time, but I learned today that Dennis Monroe at From Head to Toe salon has been covered in both the Citrus County Chronicle (see here) and local cable. He's been coordinating efforts across Citrus County for the Hair for Oil Spills Program. He and I are now coordinating. And Countryside Animal Clinic, whose vets were wonderful to our (Mary's and my) cats Daisy and Red when they were alive, are participating in the program as well. One of their clients picks up the fur and mails it off.


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