Meet Nicole Arguello | Founder of Keep FL Clean Nonprofit

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nicole Arguello and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nicole, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I used to do beach and park clean ups independently in my free time for fun and post them to my story. I always had several people reach out asking when I would be doing a cleanup again so they could come by and lend a hand. This sparked the idea of hosting larger clean up events to maximize the impact we could do for areas in need with large groups of people. After hosting a few successful beach and park clean ups, I decided to take the next steps to turn our fun, community project into an official nonprofit organization. I knew that no matter how many people attended our event, our efforts made an incredible impact for our local ecosystems and environment as a whole.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Keep FL Clean was founded in 2019 and has removed over 30,000 LBS of trash from parks, beaches and islands in South Florida. Our motto for the organization, is “Be the change you want to see in the world”. We strive to lead by example, spread education and positive energy through our passion for taking care of our planet and the uniting our community for a common cause — Florida which we all call home. This passion fuels us in all that we do for Keep FL Clean and has helped link us with several other incredible individuals and businesses on the same frequency who have helped us excel to our fullest potential. In hopes of getting more young adults involved, our organization Keep FL Clean founded the Kegkini Beach Cleanup Event where volunteers attend a swim themed beach cleanup and receive free beer for helping clean the beach. This 21+ event features local DJs, vendors, food trucks and raffles for volunteers to enjoy. This event and our other all-age cleanups have helped thousands of locals come together and become involved in taking care of their community. We want our work with Keep Fl Clean to be only the beginning and aim to one day do work internationally, helping other countries in need fighting excessive pollution and litter.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If a friend was visiting from out of town I would take them to experience all the gems of South Florida. I would contact Miami LS for a yacht and jet ski rental to treat them to an adventurous day at sea. In the evening we would go to Go Bistro for dinner to enjoy a delicious ramen and walk through Wynwood’s colorful streets to digest. I would treat my friend to a fun night out in Brickell bar hopping through some of it’s best rooftop bars (The Tea Room & Rosa Sky) and riding the scooters along the Miami River’s boardwalk to enjoy the city’s night lights and ocean views. I would encourage my friend to enjoy a relaxing day at Crandon Park where they could savor one of FL’s natural beaches and walk through the Abandon Crandon Zoo Bird Gardens.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I definitely have to give recognition to my Keep FL Clean team who enables me to dream big. The Keep Fl Clean team members are not compensated in form and work for the organization as 100% volunteers. They arrive to every event early to set up, assist participants in sorting and weighing all the trash collected, assists in the post event clean up and delivering of the trash and recyclable items collected to their appropriate waste locations. It’s a lot of long hours, physical work and funding from our own pockets, but they never complain and always help out in every way they can.

Website: KeepFLclean.com

Instagram: @KeepFloridaClean