Thursday, November 20, 2008

ONE-hundred and forty teams yesterday registered for the Clean Up Fiji Day campaign this weekend.

This will see campaign organisers send out gloves and bags for around 8700 participants for Saturday's nation-wide bid for a litter-free environment.

The biggest number of people registering yesterday was through district schools in the Ba area.

Organisers said the canebelt area had committed a total 1700 students from six different schools.

In Suva, the Raiwaqa Methodist Church Sunday School has also signed up.

This will see 322 people turn up at John Wesley Primary School on Saturday as part of the clean-up campaign.

The Chinese Embassy signed up 120 members of the Chinese community yesterday, according to organisers at the campaign headquarters.

Following the trend of previous years, other schools were also part of those which signed up yesterday.

"Andhra Sangam College of Sigatoka has their own Environment Club with 30 members participating in the Clean Up Day," they said from the Coral Coast.

Financial organisations are also keen to get going and clean their surroundings. Westpac Bank has committed teams from its branches at Nausori, Suva, Ba, Labasa, Namaka, Nadi, Sigatoka, Savusavu and Levuka.

This will see the bank turn out with a total of 134 of its staff. The highly popular picnic site -- Natadola Beach -- will also get a facelift courtesy of the campaign.

Two teams -- Fijian Surf and Fijian Water Patrol -- signed up yesterday to clean up that particular beachfront area.

This will mean some members of the team will be fishing rubbish out of the water by jet ski.

This year, the campaign is expected to draw the highest number of people ever in a bid to save Fiji's environment. The clean-up activities will run from 8am to 11am nationwide on Saturday.

Organisers were hoping to attract as many young people as possible to join in. Publicity is being generated through television commercials, radio jingles and a print campaign and the face of the 2008 campaign is a crump dancing group.

Area co-ordinators have been appointed to manage the campaign and logistics locally and the campaign is also online at:

www.cleanupfiji.org

http://www.cleanupfiji.org

For the first time, a Green Up Fiji drive is also happening with participants encouraged to form tree-planting groups as well as clean-up teams.

With a dozen years' experience, an energetic team of volunteers, a secretariat, media awareness and technology on its side, the 2008 Clean Up Fiji Day campaign is expected to see some of its best results ever.

Article reproduced courtesy of Fiji Times Online - http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=106650