Gibraltar’s Clean up the World weekend was a great success in terms of raising awareness and of liberating green and coastal areas of rubbish, furniture and building materials….

A hive of activity this weekend resulting in close to 100 tons of rubbish collected using 5 trucks and around 400 volunteers has just taken place in Gibraltar. Part of the global CUTW campaign where over 30 million people and 100 countries work together, the Gibraltar community has once again excelled in showing solidarity and support for this worthy programme. Information and inspiration are the key elements of this campaign, pulling the community together in a very practical way and clearly helping address what are after all local environmental problems.

Parade and Square event:

Saturday morning dawned with CUTW team members putting up a colourful display at John Mackintosh Square for the launch of the weekend clean up activities. Around this time schools, some CUTW teams and supporters gathered at Casemates Square for a green parade which took off at 11.00am. Slow progress through Main Street with children chanting green messages, Westside drama group carrying out an anti-litter stunts, and lots of banners and posters ensured the message of the clean up was made at the town centre. “Bonita Trust sponsored tee shirts” were worn throughout also adding colour to the parade which finished off at John Mackintosh Square.

The square event saw the Minister for the Environment Ernest Britto and Janet Howitt CUTW Coordinator, address the gathering. Prizes for the school poster competition, environmental awards and speeches took place with music provided by local musicians, and artwork from various schools on display. Worthy of mention is the cardboard litter warden created by Michelle Stagnetto on stage that made a great impression on everyone.

Environmental Awards were presented by the Mayor of Gibraltar Momi Levy, the Gibraltar Ombudsman Mario Hook, and David Dumas QC of Hassan’s
These went to:

• Bayside Environmental Club under the guidance of Gaynor Lester – for their year round efforts at helping the environment

• Richard Bear whose personal commitment to the environment is abundantly clear to all those who know him

• Juan Uceda from Spain whose support and commitment to environmental and health issues ensured a highly successful cross border Bay Bucket Brigade campaign

• St John’s Cadets for their enthusiasm and support of year round CUTW activities and first aid cover and assistance and to

• Clarke Recycling for showing that green business can work

The beautiful awards were handcrafted globes by Gibraltar Crystal co-funded by Hassan’s

Poster winners were:

Notre Dame First School Elsie Rockett, Arianne Parody and Kayllen Posso (joint entry)
St Bernard’s’ First School Aimad Benyousseff
St Joseph’s Middle School Aimee Balestrino, Becky Louise
St. Anne’s Middle School Courtney Edwards,, Jaydan Soiza
Sacred Heart Middle School Ellie Wright, Kerema Palao, Soukaina
Bishop’s Fitzgerald’s Middle School Kayleigh Espinosa

Prizes of Ice skating passes by the GSLA and certificates were awarded to winners by Pat Scott

Thanks to all the schools that supported this project with close to 500 entries in all! It was very difficult indeed to choose 10 best pictures as there were many beautiful, clever and interesting entries with strong messages which had clearly taken lots of time and effort

Winning designs will feature in promotional materials for 2008-9 CUTW campaign.
With: Bonita Trust sponsors, GSLA, We Care, Department of Education
Use the Bins Poster Competition Promo design by Michelle Stagnetto

Square event also included:
Exhibits from: Bayside Environmental Club – St Anne’s, Notre Dame School, Westside Art Department – St Mary’s First- GONHS – ESG – CUTW – FoEGib – Clarke Recycling –NO2PB – Michelle Stagnetto life size cardboard Litter Warden- Entries from Poster Competition – Artwork and booklets from David Gladstone

Parade supported by:
Schools:
Bayside, Westside, Loreto, St Mary’s, St Anne’s, Sacred Heart, St Joseph’s Middle and Notre Dame and families and friends
A few representative CUTW teams: Duke of Edinburgh, Rotary Club, Peachies Dirtpickers, St John’s Cadets, Bay Bucket Brigade, ESG and other leading members of the public

Musicians: Sista Dee, Simon Cooper and Chris Zammit of Coup d’Etat, with sound equipment provided by Adrian Pisarello –Jon Scott for opening event

Clean up Teams:
2008 once again saw close to 500 volunteers busy over the weekend picking up rubbish and waste carelessly and deliberately thrown in green and coastal areas.

Teams included:
St Johns Cadets, Bayside School, Westside School, St Christopher’s School, Clarke Recycling, Duke of Edinburgh, Police Authority, ESG x 2 teams, GONHS Cliff Section, GONHS2, Ministry of Defence, Gibraltar Regiment, Eddie Lucas/Scouts, Round Table, Police Diving Unit, RGP Officers, Peachies Dirtpickers, Europa Residents, Rotary Club, 101Ltd, Group of family volunteers

Special thanks to Steve Payne whose expertise allowed several teams to access difficult to access areas.

Also to Ewen Clinton, Gaby Garner, Selena Victory and Pamela Menzies for help in preparations for the CUTW event

Gibraltar Heritage Trust for invaluable assistance in storage and facilitating exhibition

Transport for rubbish: Wildlife Ltd, Toyota Gibraltar, 101Ltd (2), MoD, Car Care, Interbuild

Volunteers Tom Scott, Jim Howitt, 101Ltd- Ashley Cookson, Roy Pearce, Eddie Lucas, and Andrew Abrines with Albert Yome and Keith Bensusan of GONHS

Sponsored and supported by:
Bonita Trust and the Open Day Trust (Main CUTW sponsors)
Other sponsors include: Carlin, Hassan’s, Gibraltar Crystal and Morrison’s

Equipment and Services provided by: Parody Tours, Beacon Press, Image Graphics, Car Care, Trafalgar Group, local media support, 101Ltd, Master Services, St. John’s Cadets, RGP-marine section, GONHS- Cliff Section, 101Ltd –abseiling section

The organisers wish to thank everyone, including the local media, who made the weekend a great success- it raised lots of awareness of the issues about littering and widespread dumping of rubbish which needs to be tackled. It also generated interest in our out of the way and at times, forgotten areas which are of tremendous value to the community and of course to our wildlife and biodiversity.

We look forward with enthusiasm to future projects under the CUTW banner.

Please note Friday 5th October –drinks for all CUTW volunteers- please make a note in your diary- time 8.00pm venue: likely to be Casemates but will confirm by email.