The teenagers give up their weekend to fix Pine Island after Helen and Milton

PINE ISLAND, Fla. — Ida Baker football players and Mariner High School JORTC cadets are donating their time to clean up after Hurricanes Milton and Helen.

The first stop for the cleanup was Kiwanis Park in St. James. Debris still lines the streets from Matlacha to Bokelia. The two groups then moved into a house that needed repairs.

Steve Howard is the soccer coach at Ida Baker.

“When you drive by, you see trash everywhere, just the visual part of the aftermath of what Milton did,” Howard says.

These volunteers, including Cadet Lt. Col. Andy Seeley, are trying to change that.

“Pine Island never fully recovered from Hurricane Jan, and then Hurricane Helen caused even more damage, and then even more with Hurricane Milton just a few weeks ago,” Seely said.

Erin Lollard Lambert is the executive director of the Greater Pine Island Alliance.

“It’s absolutely wonderful, these young men and women took the time. Only three people out of all these children are real residents of the island. Their parents brought them, the coaches brought them here to help the community,” she said. .