Great turnout for St. Maarten Regatta 4th Annual Beach Clean-Up

St. Maarten Regatta 4th Annual Beach Clean-Up © St. Maarten Regatta

The St. Maarten Regatta organized the 4th Annual Beach Clean-up which took place last Saturday, January 9th 2016. Students and local organizations worked together collecting garbage littering Kim Sha Beach. Participants came from LAB Sports Academy, Scouting Antiano, the K1 Britannia Foundation, Learning Unlimited, St. Maarten Christian Party and the St. Maarten Academy PSVE. Over fifty-five volunteers participated, pleasing organizers with approximately 200 kilos in 40 bags of garbage collected.

After a short introduction by Tadzio Bervoets (St. Maarten Nature Foundation), every participant received a trash bag and gloves to begin the cleanup. This year, there was extra incentive; the group which had the heaviest bag of trash would be given a 'Swing Into Sunset' Cruise sponsored by Random Wind. The competition ended with a tie, both LAB Sports Academy and Antiano Scouting collected trash bags weighing twenty-five pounds each. Both groups took the sunset cruise awarded by Diane Smith from Random Wind.

Concluding the event, the participants enjoyed fruit sponsored by le Grand Marche, Fiji Water and Vita Coco Pure Coconut Water sponsored by ILTT. The morning continued with a variety of fun sports activities including hula hoops, ski walking, Bocci ball, Frisbee and beach soccer, organized by Les Brown from LAB Sports Academy.

"By the looks on their faces, I could tell they were enjoying their beach time," said Fleur Visser, coordinator of this year's Beach Clean-Up. "The annual Beach Clean-up is a way the St. Maarten Regatta gives something back to the island. I'd like to thank everyone for contributing to the event. It was a wonderful morning and I felt we did an incredible job!"