Philipsburg – Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC) in collaboration with St. Maarten PRIDE Foundation awarded several winning volunteer teams and community organizations for their participation in this year’s International Coastal Cleanup (ICC). More than 100 volunteers attended the ICC at Little Bay Beach and Pond near Belair, during which over 1,480 pounds of trash were collected. The cleanup is the sixth of a series of cleanups as part of EPIC’s “Why do we litter? – Sint Maarten” project funded by Resources for Community Resilience (R4CR).
Several businesses committed their support to “Turning the Tide on Trash” – this year’s theme for the ICC – by sponsoring some great prizes for volunteers. Prizes not only incentivised volunteers to sign up for the cleanup but also provided a sense of accomplishment after putting in the hard work to keep our coastlines trash-free. The categories for the prizes this year were: 1. Most Collected Recyclables, 2. Most Collected Litter by Junior Team, and 3. Most Most Collected Litter (overall). Riddhi Samtani, EPIC’s Project Coordinator, hosted a ‘thank you event’ for volunteers and winning teams at the Rusty Parrot, where the prizes were handed out and supporters were commemorated for their support.
Most Collected Recyclables Winners: “Team BPO-5″, a volunteer team with Members of The Police Force of Sint Maarten with 173.9 lbs. of recyclables (glass and plastic bottles). This team won an exciting Escape Room Experience, sponsored by the Dutch Blonde Bar.
Most Collected Litter by Junior Team Winners: “The Trash Collectors”, Learning Unlimited School student volunteers who collected 130 lbs. of trash, won store vouchers for Birkenstocks sponsored by Budget Marine.
Most Collected Litter Runner-Up: “Hungover Club”, second highest total of 197 lbs. received five movie tickets sponsored by Caribbean Cinemas.
Most Collected Litter Winners: “HSF 3” representing the Belair Hillside Foundation with 294 lbs., winning a $50 voucher for each team member at SALT sponsored by the Morgan Resort & Spa.
EPIC recognized the Lions and Leos Club, Belair Hillside Foundation, Cay Hill Community Council and Meadowlands, for their outstanding community contribution amongst a few other volunteers.
Belair Beach Hotel has also sponsored a prize towards EPIC’s continued cleanup efforts. This prize and how to win will be announced by EPIC soon on their social media pages.
Updates about this project and additional cleanup dates can be found on EPIC’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/epicislands. For more information or inquiries into collaborations, please contact the Project Coordinators at projects@epicislands.org.
EPIC Sint Maarten is a non-profit organisation founded in 2007 with the mission of protecting the Caribbean environment through research and community-based action in Sint Maarten. This project, “Why do we litter – Sint Maarten?”, is funded by the Government of the Netherlands under the Sint Maarten Trustfund, implemented by R4CR, administered by VNGI, and overseen by The WorldBank. For more information about EPIC’s work visit: www.epicislands.org.
