Congratulations Marquette on cleaning up after yourself following the July Fourth celebration.

In past years there have been some real messes left on the beaches following Independence Day festivities. It was embarrassing to say the least that Yoopers would leave that kind of a mess behind.

Most Upper Peninsula residents are not the type to leave garbage on the beaches. We like to believe Yoopers take great pride in our beautiful lakes and the surrounding area, and it was hard to believe looking at pictures from previous years that such huge messes were left.

This year it seems like a couple of groups took the initiative to make sure that did not happen again. The newly formed Marquette chapter of the Michigan State Alumni Association headed to the beaches in force to clean things up. To their surprise, it was reported that they found very little garbage or debris on the beaches. Double Trouble DJs also took to the beach to clean up, but also found things in good shape.

The fact that there was not much garbage to pick up should not diminish the intent of those groups and others who went to help. Thank you to the Michigan State Alumni Association and Double Trouble DJs for being more proactive in keeping our beaches clean. This is more like what we would expect to see from Yoopers.

There may well have been many other groups or people we are not aware of who helped clean the beaches after seeing pictures from previous years. If that is true, then thank you to the other people and groups that took pride in the area and helped clean up. Maybe even some of the people who left messes in previous years were embarrassed after the photos of the mess went viral and made changes to make sure it did not happen again.

It makes us feel much better about our community because of the clean-up effort put out this year. It had to be a concerted effort by many people to achieve the success that was seen following the July Fourth celebration.

It is much more enjoyable to be able to give praise for a job well done than it was a couple of years ago when we had to scold the community for the mess left behind. We encourage everyone to stay vigilant in keeping our community clean. The Marquette Downtown Development Authority does a great job keeping the downtown clean. The Marquette Beautification and Restoration Committee does a great job brightening the community with the flowers it plants that welcome people to our community. Let’s all continue to work together to keep Marquette clean and beautiful.