With options for family fun severely limited as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, The Way to Happiness Foundation of Tampa Bay suggests an activity that is family-oriented, fun, and enhances the environment and community.

Nearly a year since the COVID-19 pandemic began, families are often hard pressed to find activities that are safe, extroverting, and fun for everyone.

A team of volunteers from The Way to Happiness Foundation of Tampa Bay proved that a neighborhood cleanup can fit all these requirements. Keeping in pandemic protocols by wearing masks and gloves, the volunteers met at The Way to Happiness Tampa Bay Foundation at 33 North Fort Harrison Avenue in Clearwater, Florida, and headed for Clearwater Beach carrying “grabbers” and garbage bags. 

By the end of the afternoon, they collected and carried off 12 pounds of trash (including an estimated 100 cigarette butts) and headed for home invigorated, energized and happy. Not only was the afternoon fun for everyone, they also felt great about accomplishing something that helps the community and the environment.

 

“Nice to see the beach being cleaned up!” was one of the comments on their Facebook page. “[The Foundation] always does an outstanding job getting involved with so many causes helping the community greatly,” commented another.

The Way to Happiness is a common-sense guide to better living written by author, humanitarian and Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard. The book contains 21 precepts—principles or rules of conduct one can adopt and urge others to follow to help them survive and lead happier lives. 

Environmental cleanups are one of the many activities those who live by The Way to Happiness take part in. 

In the precept “Safeguard and Improve Your Environment,” L. Ron Hubbard wrote, “The idea that one has a share in the planet and that one can and should help care for it may seem very large and, to some, quite beyond reality. But today what happens on the other side of the world, even so far away, can effect what happens in your own home.”

“Care of the planet begins in one’s own front yard. It extends through the area one travels to get to school or work. It covers such places as where one picnics or goes on vacation. The litter which messes up the terrain and water supply, the dead brush which invites fire, these are things one need not contribute to and which, in otherwise idle moments, one can do something about.”

A free online E-course covering each of the 21 precepts is available through The Way to Happiness website, which includes the text of the book, the feature-length The Way to Happiness book-on-film and 21 public service announcements illustrating each of the book’s precepts.

“This booklet is priceless!” was a recent comment of a visitor to the Facebook of The Way to Happiness Foundation of Tampa Bay. “Reading it gave me hope; seeing it on DVD gave me tears of joy; being able to download it and have it available everywhere makes me jump [for joy] because I know from experience that the data in there give a person the right tool to come out of anything. All you need to do is to decide to apply those principles.”

The Foundation's Tampa Bay headquarters was dedicated in 2015 by Scientology ecclesiastical leader Mr. David Miscavige as part of an initiative to bring the full breadth of Church-sponsored humanitarian campaigns and social betterment programs to Clearwater, the city that hosts the spiritual headquarters of the Church of Scientology.