Divers, hikers and beach walkers were invited to contribute to the Great Lakes 1 Million challenge ­– a call to action to pick up 1 million pieces of trash from the Great Lakes basin.

Diver Stephanie Gandulla explained why, from a diver’s standpoint, one would willingly choose to dive into the frigid water on a 27-degree Tuesday. Divers estimated the water temperature to be around 35 to 39 degrees Farenheit.

“When the water’s open or even when it’s not, you really can dive anytime in the Great Lakes, as long as you’re prepared,” she said as she suited up for the dive. “We like to say there’s no such thing as cold water, only inappropriate exposure protection. So, diving does look different in the winter than it does in the summer.”

There are benefits to diving in the winter, she noted.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley Above, divers Paul Coleman on shore, Stephanie Gandulla and Megan Mainville standing in knee-deep water, and Samantha Coleman with arms spread out in chest-level water, prepare to go under to find some trash.

“The water’s nice and clear,” Gandulla said. “Certainly not a lot of boating traffic. And, you get to see different fish that are coming to the different shallows throughout the year.”

Gandulla is the education and travel coordinator for Great Lakes Divers.

“We’re out here — Great Lakes Divers — just to celebrate the sport of diving, and then we love to partner with other community members such as Great Lakes, Great Responsibility, to keep our Great Lakes clean,” Gandulla said. “You know, we do dive out here a lot for our training, and you do see a lot of trash out here. In fact, there are a lot of golf balls. You see people hitting them into the water, and that’s not cool.”

The founder of Great Lakes, Great Responsibility, Meag Schwartz, helped organize the effort to raise awareness for Great Lakes pollution prevention. She was unable to attend, but her affiliate Kellie Wasikowski led beach walkers to pick up whatever trash they could, despite much of it being covered in snow.

“We certainly want to make sure it doesn’t get into the lake because that’s the last place that trash is going to end up,” Wasikowski said. “And it’s going to either harm different fish or wildlife that live in the lake, as well as plants, or it might break down and become microplastic particles that interact with all of our water.”

News Photo by Darby Hinkley Paul Coleman holds a red-and-white divers flag, which indicates there are divers below within 100 feet of the flag. When boaters see a flag, they are required by state law to stay at least 200 feet away from it.

She said the event’s purpose is also to raise awareness about some of the most prominent types of trash that can end up in the watershed.

“Cigarette butts are a really common type of trash,” she said. “So if people made an active effort to dispose properly of their cigarette butts, we can all kind of pitch in to this collective effort.”

She said more cleanup efforts are planned for the spring, when trash is much more easily seen.

“That’s when you pick up, like, four months worth of garbage that’s been discarded over the winter,” she said. “It’s definitely a year-round effort — just one way that we can be more conscious consumers and individuals on this Earth.”

As the divers prepared to see what kinds of trash they could find in the water, some noted that boaters need to play their part in understanding how to keep divers safe. When you see a red-and-white divers flag, state law requires you to stay 200 feet away, and divers must remain within 100 feet of the flag, said Paul Coleman. He was gearing up to dive with his daughter Samantha Coleman, 19. She has been diving since she was 11.

“Sam’s brave, and she’s wearing a wetsuit,” Paul Coleman said when asked what protective gear they were putting on.

“So I’ve got to get water in this,” she explained. The water inside the suit warms up with your body heat and acts as an insulating layer between your skin and the cold lake water. On the other hand, with a dry suit, such as the one her dad was wearing, an insulating dry layer is built right into the suit to keep you warm.

In addition to Gandulla and the Coleman duo, other divers included Dan Westergard, Megan Mainville, and Phil Hartmeyer.

“Last year, we did a dive on New Year’s Day,” said Mainville, who wore her Santa hat into the water. “This is my seventh or eighth cold-water, almost ice-water diving.”

They didn’t come out with a lot of trash on Tuesday — mostly just some plastic bags and cans — but all who participated were happy to help bring awareness to the cause of keeping our Great Lakes clean.

“There’s always something around here to pick up,” Paul Coleman said.

And once in a while, someone else’s trash could be your treasure.

“I found a picture frame out at the end of the point,” Samantha Coleman said. “It has all these hearts around it, and it says ‘Live, Laugh, Love’ over and over again.”

Her dad added they once found a beer that was full, which was a nice reward after a full day in the water.