St. Maarten takes part in the worldwide International Coastal Cleanup organized every year by Ocean Conservancy.
http://www.oceanconservancy.org
This is Ocean Conservancy’s 23rd annual International Coastal Cleanup and is held on September 20th around the world. Volunteers not only clear trash and debris from beaches, lakes and rivers but record everything they find. Ocean Conservancy uses this data to provide the only global snapshot of the problem of trash in our ocean, identify sources of the debris and recommend solutions to reduce threats to humans and wildlife.
Our local environmental organization, SXM Pride, in conjunction with Ocean Conservancy, has organized a clean up for a few years now on Mullet Bay Beach.
This is one of those things I always said I was going to participate in, but never did.
Well, now I did and it was an incredible experience.
Over 250 volunteers came together and cleaned Mullet Bay beach. The schools were there. The businesses were there. Service clubs were there. There were even some tourists there.
All came to offer their time.
It was uplifting to see St. Maarteners, young and old alike, who care about their island, all working to make it a cleaner place.
The early morning hours started with a brief shower but gave us a wonderful rainbow to start out with.
.
Every bit of trash collected was documented and weighed.
People stretched from one end of the beach to the other with their garbage bags full.
Even tourists got into the act!
Some volunteers snorkeled and retrieved trash from the water.
The President of SXM Pride, Jadira Veen, took time out to give an interview.
I noticed this sign hanging from a tree.
We do not of course have a final count yet of how many bags were filled and how many pounds of trash were collected, but it was a considerable amount.
All in all, it was a job well done.
I'm proud to be a St. Maartener today!
Update:
Jadira Veen just reported that 634 volunteers came to ICC and 205 trash bags were collected.
A record breaker, folks!
Now I am really proud!
Congratulations to all who participated and especially to Jadira who organized the whole thing!
- Mood:
tired
Page Summary
- (Anonymous) : Clean up [+1]
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Comments
I can't wait for the next one! LOL
it would be nice to meet for a drink. where will you be staying?
email me
barcann@hotmail.com
Thanks again for your efforts.
Stefan