By Elise Downs
On Wednesday 15th October, our Pope John Paul II award group decided that during our Enrichment time we would go to an area that causes a concern for the environment that we could improve. We all travelled down to Whitley Bay beach, as we felt the amount of litter being left there was increasing, not just along the beach but on the sidewalk along the links. Our aim was to split up into smaller groups, and cover as much land possible in the time we had, searching for litter.
As we arrived, fully prepared with rubber gloves, overly sized rubbish bags, and even a couple of litter collectors, we decided we would start from the carpark up to the Rendezvous Café. As we split up into two groups, one group was allocated on the beach, and the other along the walk path. Immediately, in my group, as soon as we left the carpark onto the walkway, it felt like litter was jumping out at us as we were constantly scanning the floor, our bag was filling up within minutes.
Not only was it a beautiful day, but a beautiful destination that is regularly flooded with people of all ages, so it was a shame to see the amount of rubbish we did, as well as the lack of bins. However, we all felt rewarded that we could make a small change in the area, to make the environment cleaner, as well making the area’s attributes more pleasing.
Along the way, people came over as we were collecting rubbish, and thanked us. Seeing people being thankful for our actions, and actually applauding us for them, made this experience more fulfilling than we ever expected. In our time of reflection at the end, we had a time of prayer, as well as talking about our trip. We summed up our emotions in one word and went around the group – these were words like: pleased, proud, happy, rewarding and thankful. We all felt a sense of joy and happiness as we did complete our aim, and we even achieved more than expected.
