Hundreds keep Cayman beautiful for Earth Day

By Christopher Tobutt

On Saturday morning hundreds of volunteers of all ages put on their gloves and assembled in little groups all over the Cayman Islands, as part of the annual Chamber of Commerce Earth Day Cleanup, and although it was a day after the official Earth Day which was on Friday 22 April, it is wonderful to see so many dedicated people of all ages, including some quite young children and teenagers, helping keep Cayman beautiful.

In Savannah Newlands there were lots of people who came to register in the ICCI parking-lot where Kaye Carrig was busy handing out gloves and T-shirts. She is very talented, and had also hand-painted some lovely posters of beautiful underwater animal scenes, especially for Earth-Day. “I think its just wonderful that all these people come out and help the community I hope Minister Kenneth Bryan comes and sees our lovely posters,” she said.

Right next-door was a big team of students and staff (and their families) who were not only picking up litter, but were digging lots of holes, ready to plant flowers. The ICCI’s President, Dr. Byron Coon said, “We are beautifying the campus, to make it more of a community outreach. All these beautiful plants were donated by the Creative Garden Club.”

Spotts Beach is always beautiful, but a large team from the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) were making sure it stays that way. They were up and down the length of the beach, reaching into bushes to pick up litter or junk and put it in big black bags. CIMA’s Learning and Development Specialist, Michelle Magid said, “We wanted to come out here for Earth day because it was an event sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and we wanted to show our solidarity with all the other member organizations.

A huge team from Butterfield have been turning up year-after-year, and were helping clean up all round the area between the beginning of South Church Street and the roundabout at Grand Harbour. Marketing Account Manager, Bethany Ebanks-Pacheco said, “I think it’s a great initiative for us to continue, because it’s a part of our strategy to give back to the community.”

At Smith Barcadere, two groups were busy, the Key Club and the Garden Club. Elaine Campbell President of the Garden Club, “its earth day, its cleanup day, we all use this lovely area, and we want to keep it lovely. Unfortunately, many people who do use the area don’t bother to pick up after themselves. They want to come here and have a nice, pristine place to come, but they don’t contribute to that.” Cathy Myles Past-President of the Key Club said, “We recognize that litter is a huge problem, not only within our community but our planet, so we wanted to dedicate this time today to just helping out the environment and getting a hands-on approach to cleaning up all the plastic.”