Page 49 - Play Coastal Mississippi - Fall26 - Winter27

If you want to take it a step further, the program
also organizes cleanups on the Gulf Islands
National Seashore. Same work, just with a
boat ride thrown in! They also have programs
a bit further inland, taking the same approach
and applying it to parks, neighborhoods, and
waterways to get the litter before it makes it to
the Gulf.
> Mississippi Oyster Gardening Program
If the beach isn’t your thing, you can pick up a
hammer. Back Bay Mission has been rehabbing
homes for low-income residents for decades.
Volunteers work on housing projects that
include framing, roofing, drywall, painting, and
cabinetry.
It’s physical. You’re lifting, climbing, carrying—
whatever the job requires that day. By the
end of it, you’re tired in the best way possible.
Volunteers contribute around 30,000 hours of
labor each year.
There’s also a quieter option that still adds up.
The Mississippi Oyster Gardening Program gives
people a way to help rebuild oyster reefs from
their own waterfront. Volunteers grow oysters in
cages, clean them, maintain them and eventually
return them to the Mississippi Sound.
It’s not a traditional workout, but it’s still
movement—lifting cages, scrubbing, wading,
and checking on them regularly. What you’re
building not only improves your health, but ends
up improving the water around you. Did you
know—a single oyster can filter up to 50 gallons
of water a day?!
If you’d prefer something a bit more indoorsy,
Habitat for Humanity Mississippi Gulf Coast
runs ReStores in Gulfport and Ocean Springs,
where volunteers help sort, move, and organize
donated furniture, appliances, and building
materials. That means lifting, loading, unloading,
and logging countless steps throughout the shift.
It doesn’t feel like a workout while you’re doing
it. It just feels like being busy. Then you get home
and realize you’ve been active for hours. None
of this looks like exercise in the traditional sense.
There’s no routine, no set reps, no pressure to
perform. But it all helps to improve your health
and the community.
Maybe the best part of this is that nobody’s really
doing it for exercise. They’re doing it because
the Coast needs volunteers, because somebody
needs help, because there’s work to be done!
COASTALMISSISSIPPI.COM OCT 26-MAR 27 I PLAY COASTAL MISSISSIPPI 49