SANTA CRUZ, Calif.

Needles turn up in all kinds of public places, especially on beaches.

However, there are volunteers dedicated to keeping Santa Cruz beaches as needle free as possible.

"We're not doing it for money. We're not doing it for fame! We're doing it because we're afraid someone on two legs or four legs is going to get stuck with a needle," said Santa Cruz resident Rachel Dean.

Three times a week, Dean walks three quarters of a miles across Seabright State Beach in Santa Cruz, scouring the sand for needles.

She said she believes that the needles wash up along the shoreline through the San Lorenzo River or have just been discarded there.

She's gathered quite a collection since she began collecting needles in January.

"Ground zero. This is where I would start really looking around for orange and white," Dean said. "Orange being, orange caps. White pushing on a syringe and I do this back and forth."

She targets not only needles, but also trash.

Dean isn't alone in her efforts to keep Santa Cruz beaches needle-free.

Grassroots community organization Take Back Santa Cruz has one of the lengthiest sets of records tracking needle incidents in Santa Cruz. The organization's records go back four and a half years, containing over 1,635 reports of needle incidents.

The group also recorded that 14,620 needles have been removed from public spaces in Santa Cruz over the past four and a half years.

"We are doing this because we care about our community. We want to focus (on what) we can do to stop it from happening," said Analicia Cube, a member of Take Back Santa Cruz.

Today, Dean recovered one needle and a few caps at Seabright Beach.

"One needle off the beach is productive. It's one less stick," Dean said.

She takes what she's collected to her "beach mobile" and places the needles in an industrial size sharp container.

When the container fills up, she'll take it to a hospital for disposal.

Until then, Rachel Dean will continue to walk the walk in her effort to keep the beach free of needles.

Originally posted here:

Rachel Dean walks the walk to keep Santa Cruz beaches free of needles - KSBW The Central Coast