Reaching Out and Serving Our Tampa Bay Community

In the spirit of Earth Day 2009, Progressive Engineering & Construction, Inc. (Progressive) participated in Hillsborough County’s Great American Cleanup and Suncoast Earth Force’s annual Youth Summit. 

On April 18, 2009, Progressive helped MacDill Air Force Base, along with about 50 other volunteers, to remove trash from its coastline.  The cleanup focused on the southern part of the base adjacent to the golf course and marina where pristine, white sand beaches and mangrove stands compliment spectacular views of Tampa Bay and the St. Petersburg, FL skyline.  The volunteers removed about one ton of trash, including a derelict navigation buoy and floating dock that had washed onto the shoreline and were found tangled in the mangroves.    Most of the trash consisted of plastic bags, glass, plastic bottles and other personal items that likely came from recreational boaters.  The regional event organizer, Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful, estimated that the MacDill group along with 3,000 other volunteers removed 60,000 pounds of trash at 40 sites spread across the county. 

On April 23, 2009, Progressive participated in Suncoast Earth Force’s annual Youth Summit celebration held at Al Lopez Park in Tampa, FL.  This event is the capstone celebration for Earth Force students who conducted community-oriented problem solving projects throughout the school year.  The event brought in many local environmental agencies that setup booths throughout the park to share their work experience with students.  Michael Harrison, a Professional Geologist with Progressive, led a group of high school students through the park with handheld global positioning system (GPS) computers to map wetland and forested upland habitats.  They talked about how GPS is used to record environmental data and prepare maps that are used to make real world decisions.  Mr. Harrison has been an Earth Force volunteer since 2003 and is a member of its Community Advisory Board.  Earth Force engages young people as active citizens to improve the environment and their communities now and in the future.  This year, Suncoast Earth Force served 52 educators and approximately 1,200 students in Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas County schools.

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