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Friday, March 29, 2024

Volunteers brave cold and wind to plant sea oats on beach

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Despite the blustery weather, the conditions were right for the mission that brought more than 30 real estate professionals to Wrightsville Beach on Tuesday morning.

A rain would benefit the sea oats that the volunteers were planting, part of the town’s annual efforts to build up the beach’s dunes. The volunteers covered more than 500 feet of beachfront, working in teams to dig the holes, plant the sea oat seedlings and add fertilizer before moving down the beach to the next row.

In between the new fencing, town workers painted a dozen orange dots to indicate planting spots, guiding the team of volunteers to work. Overall, the group planted 3,800 sea oats on Wrightsville Beach, where they will support dune construction with the aid of wooden sand fencing adding to the fronts of the existing dunes.

Evan Marigerato, of Wrightsville Beach parks and recreation department, said the new sand fencing was important because it would grow the existing dunes outward, as the fencing was placed on the front of the dune. The town added new sand fencing along the beach strand in the areas around Johnnie Mercer’s Pier and in some areas on the south end.

Staff photo by Terry Lane Real estate professionals plant sea oats on Wrightsville Beach Tuesday, April 5 as part of Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors annual Realtor Action Day.
Staff photo by Terry Lane Real estate professionals plant sea oats on Wrightsville Beach Tuesday, April 5 as part of Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors annual Realtor Action Day.

The sea oats are important for the beach because they help collect the sand in between the sand fences, Marigerato said.

Amy Holcomb, of Intracoastal Realty, helped organize the Wrightsville Beach events, which she said not only helped Realtors give back to the community, but also to work with their colleagues toward a greater goal. They were there as part of a Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors annual Realtor Action Day, where an anticipated 500 volunteers from the real estate industry across the region worked at 14 different sites, including on Wrightsville Beach.

“It makes our jobs easier to talk about how great our community is,” Holcomb said. “It’s great that different groups and teams get together and work on this.”

The weather didn’t make for the most pleasant day outdoors. Overcast skies and heavy winds made it cold, and rain threatened to dampen their efforts. Most volunteers were bundled in sweatshirts and jackets, but they said they were still happy to have the change of pace from the office.

“It’s nice to be active and to be outside,” Tricia Monteleone said. “I’m glad they organized something for the beach that’s good for the community. Besides, the rain would help the plants.”

While most of the Realtors were from Intracoastal, some hadn’t met or worked together before. Despite working in the same building, Barbara Biedenbach and Monteleone had never met before teaming up for the sea oats planting.

“It’s great getting a chance to get to meet people more personally,” Biedenbach said.

Not all of the volunteers were Realtors. Joel Shackelford, a lending agent from event sponsor BB&T, was another organizer of the volunteers and said he appreciated the chance to do something different.

“I see a lot of these names on contracts or emails, it’s nice from time to time to get to see their faces,” he said, adding that he had not previously planted sea oats.

Pam Kittredge was another volunteer who was anxious for the opportunity to work on a project that benefited the beach strand.

“It’s so important that we do this,” Kittredge said. “Think how long this would take the town.”

Marigerato areed. Though the town has a water injection system that makes planting sea oats faster than by hand, the group of volunteers will still cover more ground than the town’s employees could.

“The help is great. They can plant faster than we ever would,” he said.

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