Grand Caribe staff took to the streets and beach on the first Friday of (June the 3rd), to be part of the First Friday Tres Cocos Clean Up Campaign. This is the first time that we came out in such large numbers and we’re happy to report that we all had so much fun cleaning our streets and beaches. The fun could be seen in the photos that will be shared below.
Altogether some 36 staff members joined other volunteers and tackled the garbage situation from our property, south ward on the roadside to Bamboo House and then on to the beach and back to Grand Caribe Belize Resort.
Volunteers included workers from all departments, such as house-keeping, grounds, tour desk, front desk, maintenance and even management – who all got down and dirty.
Within over 2 hours, we were able to collect about 15+ bags of garbage, which were dropped off at the assigned collection area near the village market. The San Pedro Town Council then picked up the collected garbage and took it to the dump site for processing.
Organizer Sue Blair speaks of the initiative: “The idea for the First Friday Tres Cocos trash pickup initiative first occurred to a small group of concerned friends and neighbours living just north of the Sir Barry Bowen Bridge on Ambergris Caye just over a year ago. We had been sitting around bemoaning the fact that there was a major increase in the amount of garbage along the road and on the beach, and decided that we should start doing something about it. With the help of a group of volunteers visiting the island, we did our first roadside trash collection in June, 2015. Since that time, we’ve started a Facebook page to spread the word about what we are doing and the progress we are making, and to invite people to participate in our monthly clean ups. Since last June our volunteers have collected hundreds of bags of garbage along the road and the beach, from the bridge up to the Truck Stop. We were also the group that convinced SP Town Council to place a dozen trash barrels along the new road (we even held a contest to pick the design on the barrels). Monthly we get anywhere from 15 to 40 people coming out to help us (we even had a group of 150 students from Holy Cross Anglican School volunteer with us one month) and with the help of the 36 volunteers from Grand Caribe this month we were able to expand the territory we normally cover by half as much again!”
Grand Caribe Belize became involved, at the invitation of our resident owners, Leisa and Ron Cyrier who discovered the group about a year ago. The original group focused on the Tres Cocos area only. However, with more volunteers coming on board, the area covered has increased north. It is the hope of all involved, that this initiative creates a trickling effect that by setting an example in Tres Cocos and now a little further north, that other neighborhoods on the island may become inspired to do their part and show civic pride of our beautiful Isla Bonita!
