It's been a hectic week or two, for one reason or another, so here's a catch-up on recent beach cleaning.
We have had excellent numbers of volunteers at all our team events in the last few weeks. Many thanks to everyone, particularly those who turned up at Brewery Bay (PSM) on March 22nd when the weather was not pleasant at all, despite the forecast! It was cold, windy and also rained at the end - everyone went home in urgent need of a hot drink.
We had a much better day the following day at The Dunes (near The Lhen) with another big group of volunteers, including Treasury Minister Eddie Teare who lives nearby and is a regular supporter of Beach Buddies.
This event once again stressed the urgent need for a quad bike - we had to haul lots of heavy rubbish long distances. One of our volunteers has very kindly kicked-off a fund raiser for a quad bike, with an anonymous generous donation of ?1,300, so if any of you have any dress-down days at your office, or any other ideas, this would be very much appreciated. A used quad bike would cost us around ?4,000+, and it would make such a difference.
On March 30th, we again went south, this time to Castletown where we joined the SAS Spring Clean event, thanks to Tim Cross and Jaynee Major who organised this. Lots of volunteers again, and masses of rubbish collected, in particular very big quantities of rope and fishing gear.
On April 6th we went to Smeale, and worked down towards Blue Point, avoiding the area towards Ballaghennie which seabirds use for nesting from now until the end of July. Another good turnout of volunteers, including the Ayres warden Louise who joined in, shifting lots of rubbish, with lots of rope again being found, probably having been unearthed in the storms earlier this year.
On April 8th, Beach Buddies joined the staff of SITA to clear what is undoubtedly the road with the worst litter problem on the Island, from the Kewaigue Road down towards the SITA plant. It was left spotlessly clean, and resulted in lots of very nice comments. It's likely to need cleaning regularly, but what a sense of achievement when it was blitzed in 90 minutes!
On April 13th, we had another massive job, this time at Pooill Vaaish. Some of our volunteers again blitzed the beach at the bottom of Fisher's Hill, but the majority went along the road towards the farm, and found absolutely huge amounts of rubbish, some of which was clearly very old. It filled the Sandy Bairstow trailer to the brim, and we had to go back another day to shift the final pieces of rubbish - including one absolutely enormous tyre and wheel!
Easter Monday, April 21st, was our last team session and had a great turnout of 34 volunteers, again collecting masses of rubbish, and enjoying a BBQ afterwards. Wonderful weather - definitely the best yet - and a rare chance to gather together afterwards and share ideas and experiences. We will definitely do this again in the future.
Of course, the above are just the team sessions. There are lots of people going out on their own on a frequent basis, including Paul Quelin (Port Mooar), Pam and Colin Kermode (Laxey and The Dhoon), David Lieserach (Spaldrick, Fleshwick), Brian Pimm-Smith (The Lhen), Ralf Mitchell (Cornaa), plus some others who are new to beach cleaning, and have transformed the beach at Glen Wyllin where we have placed our first "Beach Buddies Big Beach Bin", sponsored by the Society for the Preservation of the Manx Countryside and Environment.
So, as you can see, it's been busy, busy, busy! Don't forget, this weekend (Sunday at 10am at Castletown near Hango Hill) is the Marine Conservation Society Beach Clean, in association with Marks & Spencer, who are giving away ?5 vouchers to everyone who registers on the MCS website. See you on Sunday!
