FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCIV) -- For Labor Day, some beachgoers took to time out of their holiday to give back to the community by helping to keep the beaches clean.
"Everybody loves Folly, so we figure if you're going to labor, let's do some love in there, and we're hoping that we'll be able to collect some debris that helps us, in other words, get it out of our ocean, get it off of our beach," said Vanessa Oltmann.
Oltmann has spent nearly 10 years working with the South Carolina Aquarium and is now the lead assistant for the aquarium's conservation team.
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She is also known by locals as 'Toby Turtle,' a character she created to inspire children and adults to keep the beaches clean.
"The children that are out here, they're our future stewards," said Oltmann. "It just makes my heart happy to see that the parents are showing the children, this is what you need to do."
4-year-old Baylor and 6-year-old Macklan were two volunteers who joined the 'Labor of Love Beach Sweep,' hoping to make a difference.
Baylor told News 4, "I wanted to save the turtles."
"I keep seeing all of [this] trash at the beach. So, I always clean it up. It helps turtles," said Macklan.
"Everything that's in our waterway ends up in the ocean and it hurts the marine, wildlife and human life. Believe it or not, it is hurting us," explained Oltmann.
While picking up trash, volunteers track what they find and enter the data into the aquarium's Litter Journal.
"Each one of them are broken down into categories like plastic, cardboards, medical supplies, which will be Band-Aid, etc, tobacco," explained Oltmann. "Then after we tally it, we go to government officials and tell them 'this is what problem we have, what can we do to work together to make them better.'"
According to data found in the Litter Journal available online, since March 2016 approximately 2,079 cigarettes or filters have been picked up on Folly Beach.
Oltmann says cigarette butts are one of the most common litter items she sees, but since Folly Beach established a 'No Smoking' ordinance in 2021 she's seen less.
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Plastic lids, straws, caps, and food wrappers are the second most common.
The Charleston Surfrider Foundation also hosted a beach sweep on Folly, the two groups overlapping one another.
"It takes a village. That's a great example of that," said Luke Johnson, Beach Coordinator with Surfrider Foundation. "We're meeting great stewards of the ocean, great stewards of the beach."
The aquarium also hosted a beach sweep on Isle of Palms for Labor Day.
Oltmann says Toby Turtle's next event will be the 'Spectacular Costume Sweep' on October 26, 2025.