The team from Laing O’Rourke at the Palace Pier
A range of businesses based near Brighton beach joined us for a beach clean this week to help keep our surrounding 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.
The Shore Group team
Which is why we organised a two-hour charity beach clean this week, in partnership with the new Ivy Asia opening on Ship Street in Brighton.
Over 80 people from 11 different local Brighton businesses met at the Palace Pier to clear rubbish from the beach in a bid to keep our beach clean and raise money for us.
Each team participating in the event donated £55 to Rockinghorse which could help children and young people who are in mental health crisis.
Fifty-five pounds would cover the cost of a consultation with the new Youth Worker in the emergency room of the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital. This consultation can help young people who are self-harming, attempting suicide or at serious risk due to eating disorders be supported around the underlying issues that have brought them into hospital.
And as an extra incentive, the team that collected the most rubbish within their allotted hour will win a £150 voucher to treat their team to a meal at the Ivy Asia!
The winning team from the Hilton
Janella Merritt, Head of Fundraising said: “Working by the sea is lovely, and it’s common for people from local offices head down there for lunch, especially during the summer months. But when there’s loads of rubbish and mess around, it 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.”
Despite the day starting with rain, the event went ahead and by the time everyone arrived to pick up their gloves and litter pickers, the sun had come out.
There was fierce competition amongst the teams to pick the most litter with groups from The Shore Group, Laing O’Rourke, Brilliant Noise, The Hilton Metropole, The Grand and Fishawack taking up the challenge.
Amanda from Rockinghorse with Velentina from team Hilton
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 £1,000 and collected a total of 296lbs of rubbish was collected from the beach.
Coming in third place after collecting 34.4lbs or trash were the team from The Grand on Brighton seafront, beaten by Fishawack with a total of 40.4lbs but the clear winners were the team from the Hilton Brighton Metropole with an amazing 68.1lbs!
Jackie Irving-Wilkinson, Community Manager at County Business Clubs Sussex said: “Yesterday I had the pleasure of taking part in the Rockinghorse beach clean up. It was a great day for an excellent cause. A great way of meeting and talking to people too.”
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 for some ideas here.
