Red Sox fans, former players help clean up Bunche Beach

People took time out from a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help clean up after Hurricane Ian.

Thirty Red Sox fantasy campers took a break from baseball on Wednesday and headed to Bunche Beach to clean up Ian’s mess.

The fans found things similar to what many people likely had around their homes after Ian, planks of wood, signs that got knocked down, and pieces of metal, but now Bunche Beach looks a little better.

Volunteers from All Hands and Hearts, fantasy campers, and former Red Sox players spent a couple of hours cleaning up what Ian left behind.

“e have a lot of campers that just asked one if we were going to be holding camp still just given all the devastation down here. If when we were down here, we could provide our services to any of the local organizations,” said Katie Gauger, fantasy camp director.

“Our overall mission, we come work alongside communities. Help them recover. We will stay for the long term, arrive soon stay late. That’s sort of our MO,” said David Stackpole, Hurricane Ian Response program director. “There’s some pretty large debris piles, like way down at the end of the beach, like sort of like, the farther you spread out, that’s when you kind of get to the areas that have gotten a little bit less attention.”

“So, really, this is a dock. Obviously, it goes way out. I think we have some players that are way back there, trying to clean up, but we’re just really picking up any debris, any wood, any metal that has made its way in here. We’ve just been trying to hug the coastline and see how much we can get in the little time that we’re here,” Gauger said.

All Hands and Heart, a non-profit dedicated to helping in disaster-ridden areas, organized the cleanup event.

They’ve uncovered and removed all kinds of debris, all of which got cut up and discarded by Lee County workers.