Students help clean up Brac beaches

CNS Editor | 16/12/2015

Student Kenny Ryan helping to clean a Cayman Brac beach

(CNS): Cayman Brac high school students recently took part in a beach cleanup organised by the GREEN Team for the Sustainable Sister Islands for Recycling (SSIR). The “Trash for Treasure” event covered two beaches on the south coast of the island that do not usually get cleaned, with a total of 234 pounds of litter removed from the shoreline.

The students were each paid $1 for each pound of trash collected with a minimum of 10 pounds expected. Casandra DaCosta earned $81, David Tibbetts and Kenny Ryan both collected $40 worth, Nelda Hunter earned $39 and Sean Valentine picked up $34.

Adults supervising the young workers included Carol Ventura, Dhalchand Seeram and Kathleen Bodden-Harris. Tony Ventura helped haul some of the heavy loads to the street-side for pick-up.

In addition, an anonymous sponsor enabled the young people to earn points for their homeroom achievements and cash to spend during the upcoming holidays. Afterwards, at the weigh-in back on Public Beach, both adults and children were treated to pizza and lemonade before returning home by noon.

In the fall of 2015, SSIR implemented an education programme in all the schools. The National Solid Waste Management Project introduced and explained their efforts and plans throughout all the districts. The inaugural placement of community depots will broaden the reach of this effort to business, church and service groups.

The students also collected plastic bottles that will be used as material to build two racing boats for the “Recycling Kick-Off” scheduled for Cayman Brac in the first part of 2016.

The kick-off will herald the promotion of community-wide recycling efforts for reducing the landfill and initiating a lifestyle of sorting and collection solid waste items for removal from the environment. These efforts will include encouraging the re-use or re-purposing of waste, reducing the items for maximum efficiency and shipping to a recycling processing centre.

The event will feature a boys versus girls boat race to the Brac Reef. The event will begin with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the site of the Community Recycling Depot on the grounds near the Ashton Rutty Community Centre. A fish fry will be held by the start of the race, and the event will conclude with a BBQ and awards ceremony.

Organisers are calling for volunteers to help with the construction of the two boats, and then other young people to row the boats for the race. This is also a need for adults to supervise, organise and offer technical advice.