Fourth Schinias Beach Cleanup

On Sunday, April 25th, the Hellenic Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change launched its “Πράσινη Δράση – Καθαρά Δράση” initiative combining volunteering with environmental action at the National Park of Schinias-Marathon.

The “Friends of Schinias” mobilised a group of 50 volunteers, from a total group of about 500, to support the cleanup. We cleaned “Area Γ”, corresponding to approximately 400 x 500 meters of terrain between the two lifeguard stations in the centre of the forest.

The event was organized by Elix, a leading volunteer organisation, under contract to the Ministry. This called for a large-scale mobilisation of volunteers and team leaders, as well as the procurement of signs, tools, garbage bags and other information. The event was extremely well organised, and continued on Monday and Tuesday with special cleaning and education events for schoolchildren.

From our group, we extend a special thanks to:

· Loren Giallanella Murad, for mobilising most of our volunteers

· Heike and Lieke Defize, who once again handled the registration desk

· Alexander Ammerman, without who’s help little would have been done in terms of logistics and preparation

· Judith from Elix, who acted as team leader in Area Γ.

A very special thanks to Eleni Lambathadiou and Christine Milioni of the Ministry of Environment, and Eleni Gazi and all her team at Elix, for putting together a well-organised and very useful event. The forest and beach have rarely looked this spectacular. Congratulations!

And, as usual, a special thanks to all the volunteers who supported the cleaning!