St Maarten PRIDE foundation invites everyone to this annual event that is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year around the world. Yearly many volunteers take part, which also includes students who receive community service hours for their participation in the 4 hour cleanup event.
Each year hundreds of volunteers come out to take part in this beach clean-up and we are hoping for an even better response this year' says UTS Marketing and Communication Officer, Ivy Lambert. 'We try to assist the Pride foundation in their efforts as much as we can. We donated funds earlier this year but we can collaborate in different ways as well. This time we took a different approach. Our beaches are our islands' gems and we need to do all we can to keep them beautiful. UTS is trying to do its part to encourage people to get involved as well. The amount of trash collected will be weighed and recorded, so we wanted to reward the person(s) whom collect the most trash on Saturday with a free Chippie phone.'
The International Coastal Cleanup is the largest volunteer one day event worldwide, with over half a million volunteers in over 100 countries taking part last year.
The International Coastal Cleanup is not only about cleaning up our marine trash and keeping the oceans clean, volunteers must record every piece of trash on a special data card, this detailed information is sent on a later date to the Ocean Conservancy to be compiled in a worldwide report. Upon arrival in the morning, volunteers sign in at the beach and to collect a ICC data card which will be given out along with the cleanup tools.
