Middletown Teens Launch Jersey Cleanup Crew, Cleaning Up Parks

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — If 2020 seems like the year you'd rather forget, just remember there have been moments of incredible positivity in the past eight months, untold stories of everyday people who just want to do the right thing and make our world better.

And these Middletown teens fit that description.

Asher Zimmerman, 17 and a senior at Middletown High School South, was hanging out with his friends one day this summer at Gateway National Recreation Area/Sandy Hook when they noticed well, simply put — a lot of trash.

"My friends and I were playing spikeball at the beach when we noticed mass amounts of garbage. It felt beyond wrong to watch it sit there," he told Patch.

And so Zimmerman and his good friend, Thomas Brown, also a senior at South, decided to do something about it. The young men formed a group that would clean up dirty and polluted areas in the Middletown area and Monmouth County. They call themselves the Jersey Cleanup Crew (JCC) and so far they did the Sandy Hook cleanup on Aug. 13 and then cleaned up Lincroft Acres on Aug. 19.

"Over the years we've been coming here a lot, and noticed that the beaches were getting more dirty over time. More garbage on the beaches," said Brown about Sandy Hook. "So we decided to do a little beach clean-up."

Currently, Jersey Cleanup Crew is a group of eight, all 17-year-olds who will be seniors at Middletown South this fall:

- Asher Zimmerman
- Thomas Brown
- Will Waldman
- Ross Benigno
- Matt Dunphy
- Jack Hutson
- Austin Carter
- Sean Fitzpatrick

The Middletown teens are not paid anything for their services; they simply do it because they want the area where they live to look better.

"I have always enjoyed being able to help people," said Zimmerman. "When corona hit, it interfered with many of the other ideas I had. I was in and out of many groups during the summer until I came to this idea."

"We've all been coming here for years, using the bike trails, the beaches, the bayside," said Hutson. "It's just a beautiful place and we want to keep it that way."

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And everyone knows Monmouth County beaches and parks are immensely popular, but often not left in the best shape by visitors.

"At our first cleanup at Sandy Hook we encountered lots of plastic such as bottles, bags, straws along with some weird finds such as pool noodles, garage openers, syringes and pull casings," said Zimmerman. "During our cleanup at Lincroft Acres, the majority of the junk was beer bottles and cans. We also found a whole entire PVC (pipe) that was submerged in the dirt."

And they are looking for more places to clean up.

"Our mission is to make a difference and spread awareness about the over-abundance of pollution on our planet. We plan to do this by doing weekly cleanups at beaches, parks, woods or anywhere that has a high level of pollution," said Zimmerman.

"We would love anyone and everyone to contact us!"

If you would like to request these Middletown young men to come out to clean a site, email jerseycleanupcrew@gmail.com. Follow them on Instagram @jersey_cleanup_crew, YouTube @jerseycleanupcrew and — being teenagers in 2020 — of course they have a TikTok: @jerseycleanupcrew

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