If you’re over 50 and have never taken part in an organised beach-clean, you’re the very person the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is looking for!
The charity is running a beach-clean for people born in or before May 1967 at Sand Bay near Weston-super-Mare on Saturday, 27 May.
Part of a series of such events around England’s south and east coasts, it is funded by innovation foundation Nesta, which wants to encourage older people to join in with volunteering activities and to keep them engaged.
According to the MCS, research from the Centre for Ageing Better has found that people of 50 and above are the most likely to be highly committed to voluntary activity, and account for some 40% of all UK volunteering, charitable giving and civic participation. However, people in this age group are also more likely than younger people to remain completely disengaged.
“Over-50s are often of the generation that went to the beach as children and have then spent intervening years holidaying out of the UK,” said Justine Millard, MCS Head of Volunteering and Community Engagement. “Their memory of the seaside may be totally different from today’s reality.
“Today there’s more plastic litter, more polystyrene, more cigarette butts, more bits of balloons. We’d like them to help us get our beaches back to the way they remember them.”
But she made clear that younger generations should not feel excluded from the event: “If you’re over 50, please bring family and friends with you – whatever their age!”
You can register for the event here
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