A range of businesses based near Brighton beach joined us for a beach clean last week to help keep our surroundings beautiful.
Anyone that lives or works in Brighton loves the summer; spending time at the beach, enjoying a cool drink by the sea or for those brave souls, a dip in the sea. But we also regularly see the impact that the increased numbers of visitors have on the seafront.
It’s not unusual to see discarded fast food packaging, plastic or glass bottles, and a wide range of other rubbish left on the beach long after people have headed home.
Which is why we organised our second annual charity beach clean last week, in partnership with the Ivy in the Lanes in Brighton.
Around 50 people from a range of different local Brighton businesses met near the Palace Pier to clear rubbish in a bid to keep our beach clean and raise money for us.
Ellie Wall and Elliott Raggio from The Buyer Agency with Amanda from Rockinghorse
Each team participating in the event donated £60 to Rockinghorse which could help children and families who are struggling to manage a cancer diagnosis.
This amount could help to buy a special Medibear, a special custom-made furry friend that reflects the treatment their owner is having. These bears can help a child, or sibling, understand their cancer treatment and help to accompany them on those difficult days during their cancer journey and beyond.
And as an extra incentive, the team that collected the most rubbish within their allotted hour won a £150 voucher to treat their team to a meal at the Ivy!
Amanda Hetherington, Corporate Engagement Management for Rockinghorse, said: “Working by the sea is lovely, and it’s common for people from local offices to head down there for lunch, especially during the summer months. But when there’s loads of rubbish and mess around, it’s just not quite as nice.
“We get thousands of visitors to Brighton every year so there will inevitably be some mess left behind but it’s great that so many local businesses want to come along and help to keep our surroundings as beautiful as possible.”
And it certainly was a beautiful day for everyone to pick up their gloves and litter pickers and get going!
There was fierce competition amongst the teams to pick the most litter with groups from The Buyer Agency, Rivervale, Legal and General, Carpenter Faraday and Fishawack taking up the challenge.
Bud from Rivervale
After two hours the teams returned to have their rubbish weighed and to find out who had won the prize. Thanks to everyone who took part we raised £600 and a whopping 40kg of rubbish was collected from the beach.
The team from The Buyer Agency, a specialist search agent based in Brighton, ended up as the winners, picking up the most amount of litter and winning the star prize for their team.
Bud, from Rivervale, came along with some of his team mates to help out. He said, “We’ve got lots of blue sacks ready to get filled with rubbish today and we’re all raring to go! Hopefully this will make this lovely beach a lot leaner and all for a good cause.”
Thanks so much to everyone who took part in this great event.
Keep an eye out for more chances to get your business involved in a fun activity to help fundraise for us. Or take a look at how your company can fundraise for us here.
