Successful St. Maarten Regatta Beach Clean-Up at Kim Sha Beach

by St. Maarten Heineken Regatta on 17 Dec 2014 Last Saturday saw the third annual St. Maarten Regatta Beach Clean-Up organized by the St. Maarten Regatta as part of the Regatta Art Competition. Unfortunately, due to exams, not many children showed up.

Approximately 15 children and two teachers from Learning Unlimited came to Kim Sha Beach to help clean the beach. The participating children came from several schools like the Sister Borgia, Milton Peters College and LU and collected over 100 kilos of garbage.

The day started with a short presentation by Tadzio Bervoets, manager of the Nature Foundation. He explained to all of the children why it is important to keep St. Maarten's beaches clean. The Nature Foundation also provided gloves and garbage bags for cleaning the beach. After the presentation, the children rushed off to start collecting as much garbage as possible. They certainly did a great job, because thirty eight bags were filled, which gave an approximate total weight of 100/150 kilos. The garbage was disposed by the Nature Foundation.

Since it was only a small group of children who showed up for the beach clean-up, who all made a huge effort in collecting trash, they were all announced as winners. As in previous years, Diane Smith from Random Wind Charters donated a trip to the winners on her boat Random Wind. The children get to enjoy a sunset cruise including snacks and drinks.

After the beach clean-up fun sports activities were organized by Les Brown of LAB Sports Academy. The kids started with mini golf and tug of war. After a refreshing break where the participants got to enjoy drinks and snacks sponsored by Prime Distributors and Divico, everybody, including the organizers, participated actively in a game of dodge ball. Organizers can look back at a successful day. 'We managed to involve a group of children in a beach cleanup, while educating them and offering some entertainment at the end of the day. The feedback was very positive and we are very pleased with the amount of garbage that was collected with only a small group' said organizer Daphne van der Peijl.

Regatta Art Competition

The Regatta Art Competition is an annual event that stimulates children of all ages to be creative and bring awareness about the St. Maarten Regatta by means of an art competition. Information packages, in which the assignments are included, will be handed out to schools and individuals after the Christmas holidays. They can also be picked up at the Regatta Office, which is located at the Sint Maarten Yacht Club (located next to the bridge in Simpson Bay, or at both Van Dorp locations.