Salty Air

A Quiet Hero On A Wellfleet Beach

Written by Brian Tarcy

WELLFLEET – On Sunday afternoon, Dana Franchitto returned from a long walk on Lecount Hollow Beach with an armful of trash.

Dana Franchitto with the trash he picked up on Lecount Hollow Beach

Dana Franchitto with the trash he picked up on Lecount Hollow Beach

“Whenever I can, I pick up as much trash as I can, especially the stuff that doesn’t biodegrade,” said Franchitto, 64, of Wellfleet. “I’ve got rope, plastic bags, and balloons, which look like jellyfish to the sea turtles and seals.”

Franchitto didn’t go to the beach to pick up trash. He went to the beach because he loves the beach, and then he picked up trash because he loves the beach

In fact, he was actually entertaining the idea of going surfing but the water temperature was too cold. “I don’t have a wetsuit rated for 41 degree water,” he said.

The trash Dana Franchitto picked up in one afternoon walk on Lecount Hollow Beach in Wellfleet

The trash Dana Franchitto picked up in one afternoon walk on Lecount Hollow Beach in Wellfleet

So instead, he went for a half hour exercise walk down the beach, and on the way back, he picked up any trash that he saw. “But I stopped along the way to take in the beauty of the ocean, the waves, and the dunes,” he said.

Standing at the top of the dune, with the vast Atlantic behind him, Franchitto held the trash he picked up and reflected: “As much as I love my friends and family, I feel that as a species we are a blight on the planet, to our own hubris and arrogance,” he said.

And he added, “If everyone just picked up a little bit, the beaches would be cleaner.”

Then he put the trash in his car and looked out at the water. “I love it here,” he said. “I just love it.”

 

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— Brian Tarcy

 

 

About the author

Brian Tarcy

Brian Tarcy is co-founder of Cape Cod Wave. He is a longtime journalist who has written for the Boston Globe, Boston magazine, the Cape Cod Times and several other publications. He is the author of "YOU CAN'T SELL RIGHT FIELD; A Cape Cod Novel." He is also the author or co-author of more than a dozen mostly non-fiction books, including books with celebrity athletes Cam Neely, Tom Glavine and Joe Theisman. His previous book was, "ALMOST: 12 Electric Months Chasing A Silicon Valley Dream" with Hap Klopp,who created the iconic brand, The North Face.
For more information, see Briantarcy.com
Brian is a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan with a long-running NFL predictions/political satire column connecting weekly world events to the fate of his favorite team, now at Whatsgonnahappen.com.

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