Jack DiBernardo hates seeing the beach at Rye Town Park dirty, but rather than just cleaning it himself, he decided to make it easier for others to clean it too.
The Rye Middle School seventh grader last month unveiled a nine-bucket cleaning station he built — with help from his father Ian — for the park as a mitzvah project for his upcoming bar mitzvah.
“I made this because I wanted to help my town, and show my love and appreciation of the ocean,” Jack DiBernardo said. “I hate seeing it dirty, and this should help make it clean.”
The shelf unit holds three rows of three green buckets for use by the public. The Friends of Rye Town Park said they were especially impressed by the details of the station, including trapezoidal stops that prevent the bowls from falling out of their slots and how it was designed without screws or nails on the top surface, to prevent water collecting in the small holes.
“I have long admired the cleanup stations at Tod’s Point in Greenwich, and I’m thrilled that we now have one of our very own right here in Rye Town Park,” said Friends of Rye Town Park President Diana Page. “Park goers who want to do a good deed can grab a bucket and collect plastic and trash to keep it out of our park and especially out of the Long Island Sound, thanks to Jack.”
