Members of the Turks and Caicos Hotel and Tourism Association (TCHTA) and the community across Providenciales, came out on Saturday 21 April 2012 to make “TCI SHINE” in commemoration of Earth Day, which is recognized to as a day to raise awareness of issues that affect the earth.
TCHTA’s 4th annual cleanup campaign, “TCI Shines”, attracted the participation of approximately 240 persons, who came out with one objective, to clean up the highways and byways of Providenciales, and to bring an awareness to Earth Day and keeping Mother Earth litter free. The initiative, spearheaded by the Association and its Project Committee, focused on involving the community at large. Some groups where amazed at how much trash was being collected, quotes like; “I will now think twice before tossing anything from my car”, and “I now know the beer of choice in TCI”, due to the amount of bottles collected.
Association Executive Stacy Cox noted, “This year’s objective was to involve the wider community through various organizations, like Churches, Schools and Civic Groups, or just to have people clean up around their homes on this day”. The event for us is always bittersweet and we are happy to clean up our communities but disappointed that we are still collecting so many bags of garbage, after hosting “TCI Shines” twice a year for the past three years. We collected approximately 750 bags of garbage in addition to microwaves, golf clubs, drums and shopping carts.
Cox added, “For this cleanup we focused on awareness and outreach in the community, as the more people involved in a cleanup campaign the more people will begin to think twice about littering”
Special thanks to the members of the TCHTA, BEST Institute, Enid Capron Primary School, Mills Institute, TCI Middle School, TCI Youth Department, Gods Gem, Power 92.5 FM and 102.5 KISS FM, Harvest Bible Church, The Church of God of Prophecy and members of The Filipino Community for doing their part to help TCI Shine.
