Jillian Spano, 2021 Mrs. New Jersey Earth, and her three children were among the 102 volunteers who took to the sands of Long Beach Island last Saturday, Oct. 24, as part of the 35th annual Fall Beach Sweeps, organized each year by Clean Ocean Action, and coordinated locally by Alliance for a Living Ocean.

Spano, born and raised on the Jersey Shore, said she was participating in the cleanup for her “Think Global, Act Local” project, in collaboration with Next Gen E-ko, whose mission is to “preserve the ocean…