Saturday 30 August 2014

Get Cleaning

On Thursday myself and colleague Fay with Discover2Empower took our group we are currently working with out to the beach at Bantham and did our beach clean. Inspired by the Save our Waves (SAS) , the 'Pick up Three' model, and recently the 2 minute beach clean initiatives we have used the beach cleans since the empowerment programme began. Having the former founder of Surfers Against Sewage, Chris Hines, as a fellow Director when we were both previously at Surf Action was an amazing privilege. On our very first empowerment course delivered for that charity Chris walked us along Porthtowan beach and used the beach clean as a vehicle for change. Chris' motto is M.A.D. or Make a Difference and he lives his live by this. He spoke of making the small changes first and then leading to wider and greater changes in life, being aware of the problems but focus by looking at the solutions. I'm sure Chris won't mind us continuing this ethos and I have a fraction of his knowledge but the beach clean is a great way to engage with our groups. Chris has his business 'A Grain of Sand' and if your business needs a strong message in Making a Difference then please look him up.


We also now combine this with the Two Minute Beach Clean initiative; by taking a short time to clean up a small stretch of beach and remove the small pieces of plastic and non-biodegradable rubbish from our shores and relate this small effort to create a greater opportunity in life to move forward, whilst also helping ourselves and others. The beach clean is solution focussed, we now the problem, the solution is to educate others not to throw their crap on the beach, or over the side of a boat, and if they do, encourage others to take some of their time to help clear it up. Please take two minutes when your the beach to pick up someone elses litter, take a photo and put it up on instagram with @2minutebeachclean and join a revolution.

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