ST. MARTIN PARISH — A few months ago, two cousins, Dominick and Alex Chaillot set out to clean the bayou with little more than determination and free weekends. Since then, their mission has grown into a community-backed effort that’s changing the way people look at local waterways.
Dominick said, “Amazing quite frankly. The waters are down which has exposed a lot more litter. We’ve been out there cleaning up everything. We’ve been able to get to areas we weren’t able to get into before.”
For Alex, the work is about more than hauling debris. “You know it’s work,” he said, “but we understand we’re picking up decades worth of trash out here. This is from a long time. A lot of this stuff we’re now digging out of embedded mud on the bayou banks as we’ll see soon.”
The cousins showed how far things have come in the past three months. The area along Butte La Rose once packed with garbage is now transformed and trash-free.
Dominick describes it as “Inspiring. Like you know the work itself is kind of fun but the end result is beautiful.”
Protecting that beauty has become the driving force. Charlie Clark, owner of Aquaholics Marine, has supplied the effort with boats and repair parts to keep the cleanups moving. “I care about the water because everybody I put on the water I want them to see a clean area, not a place with a bunch of junk,”. He added, “Just outstanding people to come into this area, they’ve made my life a delight here.”
Dominick says the momentum has only grown in the past few months, “We reached out to the community, the community joined us and helped us to raise some money to buy some canoes so we could help get volunteers out on the water with us.”
Alex added, “We’re basically only hitting the local waterways right now.”
Still, they’re looking ahead. The cousins plan to apply for grants, expand their reach, and continue using social media as a tool to bring more people on board. For them, every weekend cleanup is part of a bigger mission—to make sure the bayou isn’t just cleared, but cared for.
