Our latest Beach Clean was, once more, well attended with something like 55 people turning out to do their bit. Seemed to us there was a more diverse crew compared to last time – and we’re glad of it. We’re grateful to everyone who came (and to the council boys who came and cleared the bags at the end.
We had dry weather, which helped us unearth a couple of tyres, a cupboard door and loads of plastic bags. Overall we had less rubbish to find, which must be good thing. Maybe people are leaving less around, certainly we’re aware of more people taking a bag and clearing litter they find when out walking.
Best of all, it was a really fun day – not too much hard work followed by some great food at the Sailing Club provided by volunteers from the Club as well as our very own cake specialist. It took a long time for people to drift away from what was a lively and cheerful gathering.
Some, of course, went on their way, but a goodly bunch made their way into the artists Gilyan Noble and Elaine James’ workshop where they were able to discuss and try out ideas for what to do with the bits they’d collected. So successful was this that we had 21 entries for the Art is Rubbish competition exhibited at the WASPs Links Studios the following Sunday. There were an awful lot of fantastic pieces and the judges, Denise Collins from Castle Gallery in Inverness and Eleanor Harcus, had a tough time picking the winners of the two categories. Amazingly, up against 8 other youngsters, George Hibberd won the under-16’s for the second time in a row. Our adult winner was novice artist and experienced sailor Gina Holmes. Both win a free taster session with the Sailing Club. George plans to take some swimming lessons first, while Gina insists on sharing her prize with artist Gilyan Noble.