Simply Homeschool students take part in clean ups at Umina and Patonga
Take 3 for the Sea and Clean4Shore joined forces on Thursday for a morning of education and action for more than 100 students who are part of the Simply Homeschool program.
The students from Simply Homeschool have been staying in Umina Beach and spent the morning with Take 3 staff, splitting into two groups cleaning up the areas around Patonga Beach and Umina Beach, while learning about the importance of keeping our oceans and waterways clean.
As an added experience, Take 3 were joined by Clean4Shore for the second time this month, with founder Graham Johnston collecting larger objects swept out to sea by the recent floods on the Clean4Shore barge, filling it entirely.
The clean-up was even more astonishing than usual due to the recent flooding and at the conclusion of the morning’s activity a litter audit was completed with the students removing an incredible 1.96 tonnes of litter from the two beaches.
Among the stranger things the students found were a motorcycle tank, a fridge, several tyres and a large industrial light head.
Jen French from Simply Homeschool said: “My two boys and I live by the sea and we see the rubbish and the pollution every day. They are so passionate and proud to be cleaning our shores with Take 3 and preventing plastic from polluting our ocean.”
The Clean4Shore barge returns to shore full of waste following the recent floods
As an added bonus for the children in attendance, Take 3 CEO Sarah Beard popped in on Wednesday evening to give an overview of our work and show them award-winning documentary, Blue, on which she was a producer and impact producer.
Sarah said: “Empowering young people to be part of the solution to plastic pollution is so important.
“These children want to look after their environment and seeing their disgust at the amount of litter we found but also hearing them share stories about saving wildlife and the ocean is so rewarding. It’s why we do what we do.”
Austin, 8, was one of the youngsters in attendance, he said: “I thought there was a bottle cap stuck in the sand, but it was actually a whole bottle! I’m glad a bird didn’t find it first.”
After the recent flooding our work is more important than ever, with all floating debris destined for the sea so please dig deep and donate here to support our work. Every little bit helps us remove plastic from our ocean and educate people about the importance of ocean conservation.
If you would like to hear more about our education work get in touch via info@take3.org
