Beaches around the world are a place for people to enjoy and relax. But during this leisurely time people tend to forget that it is important to keep our surroundings and cities clean. Beaches are one of the most important places that need to be kept clean, because they lead to the ocean. So to keep coasts clean around the world, World Coastal Cleanup Day is celebrated in the third week of September.
As a part of this celebration our school provided us with an opportunity to clean our local beach (Dumas Beach).
LO4 : Commitment was necessary to complete this CAS Experience, because I had to wake up early in the morning and spend 2-3 hours at the beach cleaning it. And since there was limited time I had to commit to an area of the beach and clean it thoroughly. I do not find it hard to be persistent to what I commit, so similarly even for this CAS experience it was not as difficult for me to show commitment and perseverance.
LO5 : When cleaning a large area such as a beach it is helpful to work collaboratively. Me and a few of my friends grouped together and decided to work together to clean up a fairly large area. We cycled our way through carrying the heavy trash bag and picking up waste from the ground. This made it easier to clean larger areas of the beach.
LO6 : Cleanliness and sanitation is a serious problem around the world. We usually undermine the serious negative impacts of plastic on the environment and end up littering our surroundings. A beach is a worse place to have more plastic waste, as that waste ends up in the oceans and harms the aquatic ecosystem. This realization gave me a sense of responsibility towards our environment and thus I decided to be a part of this experience.
LO7 : By being a part of this activity I not only did the right thing, but I also was able to share the importance of cleanliness with others. This is how the actions of one person can start a chain effect and have a massive impact. I always thought that my city was especially clean, which is actually the case when it comes to main roads, but I never realized that small lanes and public places like beaches can be so dirty.
Through this experience I developed a few learner profile attributes, such as Caring, by thinking about the environment; Communicators, by collaborating with my friends on a strategy to effectively clean the beach; and Reflective, by reflecting on humanity’s actions’ and how they can affect nature.
It felt really proud to see how just a few hours’ effort can bring about such a huge change, as the beach went from really dirty to very clean.