Volunteers made their way to Dorchester’s shorelines last Saturday morning for a clean-up focused on Malibu Beach, Savin Hill Beach, the area around the Vietnam Memorial, and Patten’s Cove.

The program was organized by the Surfrider Foundation, a non-profit that advocates for ocean protection and other climate issues, in association with UMass Boston’s Urban Harbor Institute.

Katrina Martin, a member of the foundation who has lived in Savin Hill since 2010 and is familiar with debris accumulated on the shore, spearheaded the gathering.

She hopes the cleanup will bring focus to the litter accumulation and changes that can be made individually and as a community to fix the problem.

Among the scores of volunteers who showed up were people from the UMass Boston community, members of the Columbia-Savin Hill Civic Association, as well as residents from Dorchester and other neighborhoods in the city and state. Martin said these were people who “recognize that there is a problem and want to do something about it.”

Alex Vai, a coordinator for the Surfrider Foundation, says maintaining and preserving the shoreline is critical. “They’re a public resource that’s available to everyone and they’re intrinsically beautiful. They provide a lot of people the opportunity to experience nature and the ocean in a way that if it was a private beach, they wouldn’t have that opportunity.”

Ann M. Walsh, a volunteer and candidate for the District 3 Boston City Council seat, wants neighbors to know that anytime you drop a piece of trash, whether it be a cigarette or a water bottle lid, that action can be consequential for the environment.

“The tiniest thing, you drop it and when it rains it’s going down the storm drain, it’s ending up in the Neponset River, it’s ending up in Dorchester Bay, and it’s either getting washed back onto our beach or it’s getting eaten by a little turtle that thinks it’s food,” Walsh said.

Over 300 pounds of trash were collected and sorted on Saturday. That information will be recorded for data by the non-profit foundation and used to “support community science and policy efforts,” according to Martin.