Beach clean up shows commitment from the Saldanha Local Tourism Association! |
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Early Saturday morning, 8 June the West Coast was greeted with rainy and windy conditions, but a decision had to be made whether to go ahead with the Beach Clean up or not. Without much consideration the Saldanha LTA made a unanimous decision to keep the momentum going and the beach clean up must go ahead. Luckily the weather cleared up nicely by sunrise and although there was a chill in the air, there was no rain.
At 8:30, Boeries from AvR Transport started to pick up the +/- 150 school children from schools in the area like St Andrews Primary, Diazville Primary and Diazville High School. They were transported to Blue Bay Lodge where the ever friendly and helpful team greeted us with warm coffee and tea in hand. John and Kevin Jones from God Youth Ministries entertained the beach cleaners with music as they started arriving. A total of 200 dedicated individuels registered and started getting ready for the job at hand. We even had a visitor from Swellendam, Lynette Awenand, who volunteered her help as well as a few children from Curro Langebaan who arrived in smaller numbers to also offer their help!
Unfortunately not so many of the residents from Saldanha were brave enough to face the winter cold to help with the 3km beach clean up project. With great enthusiasm, everyone who took the time to attend started working together in a very positive manner.
The Protea Hotel Saldanha Bay sponsored a total of 1400 black bags and participants started filling up and these bags and taking them to the marked pick up points along the beach. From here the Municipal workers picked up the bags which were then loaded onto the Municipal trucks. It is such a pleasure to work with a Municipality which supports initiatives like these.
After a few hours of serious beach clean up, everyone arrived at the Hoedjiesbaai beach where John and Kevin again greeted us with upbeat music to celebrate the very first success of the Saldanha LTA. Once again a big thank you to Andre Mostert and his team from the local Municipality who arranged a power point on the beach so everyone could receive a warm cup of soup upon arrival sponsored by Marilyn Matroos, resident of Saldanha. One of the biggest companies in Saldanha, Sea Harvest, also came on board and each person also received a juice and a fish burger made with love and care by Keith and his team. We thank Deon Ocks from Sea Harvest for this generous donation.
With everyone's tummies full, Suzette Pieterse from the West Coast Biosphere and her team, who also assisted in the clean up, had an informative talk with the kids about recycling and gave some practical tips on how each family can do recycling at their homes. The general theme for the day was that change starts with each one of us.
To end off the day, various lucky draws took place. We would like to thank Berneace Nel and her team from the Protea Hotel Saldanha Bay for the unbelievable sponsored prizes. These ranged from breakfast for two, R100 Reggies vouchers as well as vouchers at Wimpy and Spur. The biggest of which was at the African Pride Crystal Towers and Spa, which is a 5 star venue. Thank you to the Blue Bay Lodge for their two meal vouchers sponsored as well as the Matress Medic in Saldanha for their contribution. It was definetely a highlight of the day and to see so many little faces light up and this really made all the effort worth while.
In total, more than 600 black bags were removed from the beach and it was absolutely shocking to see how much rope, tyres and fish nets washed up on the beach. It is obvious that it is not only people that live in our town that are responsible for the state of our beaches. We will bring this under the attention of Portnet in the hope that everyone realises their involvment in keeping the beachfront clean. There is still an alarming amount of plastic bags and beer bottles on the beach which comes from the local residents and visitors who visit the beaches on a regular basis.
This beach clean up was the first of many to come and a project that aims to inform and also educate the community about our environment and our responsibility to make sure it is kept clean and neat. The easiest way to achieve this is to not litter yourslef and to make sure that you educate everyone around you to do the same.
The Saldanha Bay Local Tourism Association worked really hard to start this initiative and we believe that the spirit of this initiative will also capture the hearts of everyone in Saldanha and surrounds. It is with great commitment from the committee and the hours they put into this project and especially their time, that made this such a big success. We would really like to do big things in our town and we cannot do these projects without the support of businesses and residents. Let's not wait for others to do something positive, lets take the lead and be the example and let us all stand together to make Saldanha Bay a cleaner and more beautiful place.
From myself as Chairman, thank you so much to everyone who made a contribution to the success of the event. Thank you for the wonderful prizes but most of all, thank you to each and everyone who was there and made the difference. Thank you to the schools and the dedicated teachers who gave up their time to be there!
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