OCEAN CITY – For the first time, the Ocean City Chapter of the Surfriders Foundation presented a Surfrider Recognition Award to an advocate for keeping the town’s beaches clean.
Terry Steimer of the Ocean City Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation and chairman of the Please Leave Only Your Footprints Campaign presented Kathy Fisher with the new award.
Steimer said the foundation wanted to begin an annual recognition campaign on behalf of the unsung heroes in town and the surrounding area who take the time and effort to clean the beach.
Steimer first met Fisher five years ago when he was working on beach debris duty for the Town of Ocean City. He would observe her walking the beach picking up trash.
“After a few days of that, she approached me and told me that there was a chair on the beach that she had stood up on its side for me to recognize, and it hadn’t been picked up for two days and that I should take care of that,” Steimer said.
Steimer and Fisher’s relationship has progressed over the next five years in their passion to keep Ocean City’s beaches clean. He joked that since then Fisher has worked with other city employees on beach debris duty making them well aware of debris that needed to be collected.
“She either tells them where the debris is to pick up or she borates them for not picking it up in a timely fashion,” he said.
According to Steimer, Fisher walks the beach seven days a week from the Inlet to 30th Street collecting trash. Fisher is not affiliated with the Surfrider Foundation who also dedicates time with 19 annual planned beach clean ups.
“Kathy has taken it upon herself to do this and now I don’t know what drives a person to have that kind of initiative, and that kind of thought, and that kind of dedication to clean up the beach in Ocean City … maybe someday we will find out but I doggone appreciate it,” he said.
Steimer presented Fisher with the first ever Surfrider Recognition Award as Mayor Rick Meehan followed in presenting her with a Key to the City Award in her dedication to keeping Ocean City’s beach clean.
“It is a great initiative by the Surfriders to initiate this award and recognize those that take it upon themselves because they know it is the right thing to do,” the mayor said. “They appreciate our beach and I’m sure love Ocean City as much as Kathy does.”