First off, I'm so sorry it’s been so long since I've blogged. I do promise to do better about bringing issues of Volunteerism and the Environment to you in the New Year.
Part of the reason I've been slack in blogging is because I took the whole month of December off. Yes, I did it, I walked away from my desk, trusted a volunteer with everything (which she did a fantastic job!) and took a much needed break.
But, unfortunately even while on vacation, I started thinking about possible things to blog about and writing rough drafts of posts in my head.
My husband and I were fortunate to spend the month in the Mediterranean on a cruise. We visited parts of Europe, Africa and Asia and had the most wonderful time!
You see, my husband and I love to travel; to experience new parts of the world, see new places. I'm a very open person when we travel as I like to experience people's cultures, ways of lives, foods, religions, you name it.
But for some reason on this trip my eyes seemed to notice every single piece of trash in the ocean as we were coming in to ports, on beaches as we were walking around, on the streets where we walked, in the canals that we drove past. This is the first trip we took where I noticed my hyper-attentiveness to pollution and trash were interfering with my enjoyment of the experience. Now mind you, 95% of the places we visited were clean, beautiful and gorgeous - it's just that 5% that really got to me.
One city we visited near the end of our trip broke my heart - I wanted to get out, grab trash bags and gloves and lead people in a cleanup! There was trash piled high on the side of the roads, trash in canals that was so deep that it actually made a dam in the water and prevented the water from flowing, trash being burned in the midst of expansive farm fields where workers were harvesting crops, trash piled high in parks where children were playing. All I could think about is how these children will never know what it's like to swim in clean water, play at a clean beach or park or walk to school on a road that is not littered with trash. And it is not their fault, this is how it is here, this is how trash is dealt with. All I could think about is what those International Coastal Cleanup cards would look like - imagine the tally marks!!!
In another city we visited, they are trying to improve the coastal area to draw more tourists in. They are building beach clubs, yacht clubs, expansive hotels, fancy restaurants and cafes, theaters, you name it. But all I could think about was no matter what businesses they built, who would vacation here with the beach as dirty as it was? In amongst the lounge chairs and umbrella tables were piles of trash - household trash bags, food waste, tires, plastics - I could go on but I am sure you can imagine it for yourself. And even worse, a block in from the road where all of the development is happening, buildings are crumbling and trash is piled high. I don't think I would vacation there for the beach, would you?
Now I'm sure many of you are saying, well I've been places like that, seen worse, seen photos, videos, etc. how could I not know this was going on over in other parts of the world? I did know things like this happen in other parts of the world, that there isn't always the option for waste removal and recycling like we have in the US. But this was really the first time I personally got to see it with my own two eyes and not in a book, online, on a TV screen or in the form of data released after ICC cleanup each year. Seeing it with your own eyes certainly holds more of an impact and this is something I will forever carry with me and remember about our trip.
All of this made me realize, aside from the reality that I can no longer visit a beach or go on vacation without noticing trash (thank you beach cleanups!), that as bad as we think our beaches are, there are other places in the world that are MUCH worse. And it made me think that if I can make even a tiny impact here in little Rhode Island with our incredible corps of volunteers taking to the beaches, that it has to somehow make a difference.
I have to believe our impact in Rhode Island makes a difference - just take a look at our 2010 cleanup numbers:
1,035 volunteers participated in 30 statewide cleanups this past year where they picked up 13,926 pounds of trash from our beaches, neighborhoods, parks and rivers.
See volunteers, you do make an impact and the work you do is so important! Thank you for all of your hard work in 2010!
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