This week in Vancouver is the comeback of the Celebration of Light fireworks show at English Bay. This event brings out tens of thousands of people to watch an unforgettable display of fireworks from countries all over the world. Now what does this have to do with Purposely? We were able to get a team out to English Bay the day before Celebration of Light began; we are so glad we did!

Why a Shoreline Cleanup?

Beach cleanups are important to keeping our oceans free of trash. It is estimated 8 Million tons of plastic enters our oceans every year. And 70% of our debris sinks into the ocean's ecosystem, 15% floats, and 15% lands on our beaches. As members of this city and settlers of the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), S’ólh Téméxw (Stó:lō), Qayqayt, Stz’uminus, and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations it is important to give back and work towards cleaner beaches and oceans. Let's all do our part to keep our oceans as clean as possible and pickup garbage where we can.

What We Did

We worked with Ocean Wise Shoreline Cleanup and Vancouver Neighbourhood Cleanup to pick up trash on the beach. With such large events and it being summer, unfortunately the beach can become full of litter and trash. We had tongs, gloves, and trash pickers for everyone to use and also a metal detector! The metal detector was a fun addition to our day. We mostly found bottle caps and coins, no buried treasure on this beach sadly.

We geared up, remembering the safety rules, and spread out across the expansive beach at English Bay. Everyone got a turn with the metal detector in hopes of finding something exciting. We set the group into teams of four off on a mission to collect the most garbage. The winners could decide on a non-profit for Purposely to donate $100 to in their name.

We took a break halfway through and then got back to it. Everyone who came out worked hard and we picked up an outstanding amount of garbage. The average Shoreline Cleanup collects 15 lbs of garbage and our team collected an astounding 57 lbs of trash which is 271% more than the average. We were blown away by how much was collected and really proud of everyone who came for all their hard work.

Who Joined Us

With four different companies joining us we had about 26 volunteers who scoured the beach. The companies joining us were SALUS, Event Temple, tentree, and Black & White Zebra. We measured all the trash each team collected and tentree won our competition! It was a close call with SALUS only one pound behind tentree. Tentree chose to donate the $100 to Ocean Wise, which was fitting given the work we did on the beach.

Everyone who attended had fun searching the beach and connecting with their teammates as they did. The feedback we got was fantastic such as this quote from Hyatt Smith, a business development rep who works at SALUS:

This is a great team building exercise internally and is rewarding either way!

Purpose Days💜 always bring teams together in a unique way. Getting out of the office and working towards something that benefits the community and environment is an impactful thing. We always love hearing how people enjoyed volunteering and what they learned. Even if what we learn is the importance of picking up our trash when we go to the beach.

Join Us

Accessible and impactful volunteering is our mission. With our Purpose Days💜 and online digital platform, Purposely makes it easy to get your team out volunteering. We have many volunteering events and opportunities coming up in the next couple months and would love for you to join us!