Hundreds take part in KBB Spring Clean

KBB’s Annual Spring Clean event was a huge success this year with a 217% rise in participants over last year.  916 volunteers cleaned up in 35 locations and removed 6.3 tons of litter and debris from the local landscape.   “KBB is regaining its popularity as a community service activity that is easy to complete, meaningful to the community and gratifying to the participant.  It’s a win-win situation,” says KBB Executive Director, Anne Hyde.

This year’s Spring Clean event was kicked off by 457 students and counselors from Government’s After School Program on Friday, May 3.  They picked up litter in eleven different locations across the Island.  Then on May 11, 459 additional participants took part in the Spring Clean in 24 additional spots.  Overall, of the 916 participants, 219 were adults and 697 were students.  This goes in keeping with KBB’s recent efforts to step up its connection with schools, improve educational materials and opportunities for experiential learning.  There is sometimes nothing more powerful to strengthen the lesson than the hands-on action of doing.  “Many students who will admit to occasionally dropping litter are shocked when they see the accumulation of litter over time, and they are part of the team assigned to cleaning it up.  It’s a great deterrent and puts most people on the path of leading a litter-free life,” says Ms. Hyde.

Many of our beautiful roads in Bermuda hold a nasty secret.  While they appear pristine when you are driving along them, the truth is that if you stop and look, you will find lots of litter.  Hidden under the hedge or within a few feet from the roadside are beer bottles, empty food wrappers, plastic water bottles and even dirty diapers which have been thoughtlessly tossed from a passing vehicle.  While KBB statistics show that only a relatively small percentage of Bermuda’s residents carelessly litter, it might be a daily bad habit for them and the accumulated effects builds up over time.  So the same person who gets take out lunch every day and drives the scenic route will toss the empty containers out into the woods.  Many excuses range from could not see a trash can, want to keep my vehicle clean or it is someone else’s responsibility to pick it up. 

All the participants for KBB’s Spring Clean event know that it is volunteers who pick up roadside litter in Bermuda, and they hope that their efforts are seen as a leap of faith that will help bring Bermuda’s neighbourhoods together.  More and more people are coming out to care for Bermuda’s environment and be a positive change and help spread the message to stop littering.

A special thanks to Mrs. Valincia Willis who coordinated the eleven different locations for the Youth, Sport & Recreation Afterschool Program participants.  Additionally a hearty thank you to all the other Team Leaders who gathered their groups, picked up supplies from KBB and tracked statistics.   Lastly, KBB would like to congratulate five BHS high school students who are working with KBB to complete their CAS requirements for IB.  The girls took on an assignment to photograph the Spring Clean teams and obtain quotes from many of the groups.  The BHS students are Marisa Whitecross, Rachel Daly, Victoria Santos, Wendy Tuxworth and Zoe Smith.

Students participated from Saltus Grammar School, MSA, Whitney Institute, Clearwater Middle, Purvis Primary, St. David’s Primary and West Pembroke.    Athletes from North Village Community Club, Saltus Valencia football team and the K-Kids Club formed clean-up teams.  Residents from Harbour View Village and the Southcote Road and Ord Road East Neighbourhood Watch groups cleaned up their areas.  Civic groups such as the Atlantic Phoenix Lodge and Sandys Rotary Club members took part.  Company teams from Butterfield & Vallis, CD&P and BGA joined the event as well as members of the Central Community Action Team of the Police.  Representatives from various OBA constituencies covered three locations, one of which was Hermitage Road where the team picked up over 60 bags of trash in this one location.  Diallo Rabain and Louisa Birmingham each gather small teams in their respective neighbourhoods of Devil’s Hole and Fort Scaur.  Teams of various sizes worked in locations in every parish with the exception of Southampton.

KBB is grateful for the continuing support of waste collection after clean-up events coming from Government’s Waste Management Section, including the teams for residential pick up, bulky waste collection and recyclables.  Assistance is also generously given by the East and West Teams of the Parks Department and as needed by the waste collection teams of the municipalities and WEDCo.