Laurie Arsenault, one of 10 children, was always told by her father: “The world is not a trash can. Pick up after yourself.”
Now she is known as the Angel of Beachway for picking up 540 pounds of trash in the last two years from Ocean Ridge beaches.
On Feb. 3, Ocean Ridge Vice Mayor Steve Coz read a proclamation in her honor at the monthly Town Commission meeting.
“Please don’t litter. First of all, I have OCD,” she told those in attendance. “If I see it in my vision, I have to pick it up.”
The 66-year-old was born in Massachusetts and was a nurse for 40 years, picking up after patients and keeping hospital rooms antiseptic. With her husband, Salvatore, Arsenault has six children and six grandchildren.
“I don’t want my grandchildren to grow up in a trash can or an ashtray,” she said.
Arsenault, a Boynton Beach resident, picks up on average three pounds of trash a day, including shoes, toothpaste, plastic pots, bottles, bottle caps and — of course — cigarette butts.
Arsenault said she used to be a cigarette smoker and “I’m paying penance now. I’m picking up.”
Arsenault said there is a side benefit to her beach cleanup: “It keeps me limber by bending down and back up again.”
— John Pacenti
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