Last month, over 300 REALTORS®, and members of the community came together at clean-up sites across Northeast Florida to take part in NEFAR’s Fifth Annual Clean-up Northeast Florida Waterways event on July 12 in Putnam County, and July 19 across the Jacksonville area. The event gave NEFAR members the chance to give back to the community where they work. The association and external volunteers helped dispose of over 8,000 pounds of trash, an all time high for NEFAR’s clean ups.
The event was part of NEFAR’s contribution to Florida Realtors’ month-long Clean Up Florida’s Waterways initiative, which invites REALTOR® members across the state to help clear litter from lakes, beaches, rivers, creeks, and streams throughout July.
In addition to the cleanup events, NEFAR’s very own staff member Taylor Swagel won the trash bucket challenge for a second year in a row, which ran from May to July as part of the Clean-up Florida’s Waterways initiative. Taylor removed over 45 bags of trash, winning her the $250 grand prize from NEFAR’s 2025 President, Mario Gonzalez. In total, the trash bucket challenge resulted in the removal of an additional 615 pounds of trash.
As a whole, the Cleanup Florida Waterways initiative, which was made up of efforts from 38 local REALTOR associations, removed 27,049 pounds from Florida’s waters. NEFAR claims the bragging rights of having the highest total of trash collected out of all participating associations!
