TAMPA, Fla. — Thousands of people will go to the different Gasparilla events over the next week, and that means tens of thousands of beads will be thrown out too.
For businesses like Buccaneer Beads in Tampa, this time of year business booms louder than the cannons at Raymond James Stadium.
"It's fun," said Jennifer Grindell, the store's manager. "It gets a little stressful here and there, especially when my inventory is going out as fast as it's coming in."
The amount of business coming in this year surprised the 18-year-old business.
"Never in my right mind would I have thought it would explode like it has," said Grindell.
In fact, Grindell said their season for selling beads starts in October, peaks in January, and runs through April. Just this week, they had a shipment delivered, and all those beads weigh about 15,000 pounds.
"Me and my mom started it, and we only knew of the parades that we participated in," said Grindell. "Come to find out, there's over 100 in the state through the year. So, we didn't have the luxury of the six months on, six months off. It's year-round."
As the celebrations come and go, what should you do with all those beads? Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful, in collaboration with the city, has organized an annual after-Gasparilla parade cleanup.
"Beads are meant to be on land and certainly enjoy them, but really try to keep them off the water," said Allan Antolik, the Deputy Director for Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful.
Beads in the water can be a threat to marine life and our ecosystem. The organization said past years have seen volunteers remove 5,500 pounds of litter and debris as well as collect more than 500 pounds of beads.
Beads collected will be donated to the MacDonald Training Center.
"They'll repurpose the beads, they will resell the beads back to the krewes, and then the profits that are made are used for their programming, their education, and their community services for people with disabilities throughout Tampa Bay," said Antolik.
- More information on Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful after Gasparilla cleanup
