Kids celebrate sea

PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - The recent Plett Ocean Festival has cemented the importance of protecting the oceans in the minds of local youngsters and it is believed that it will have a great impact in the future.

Organisers said that a project launched by the Keep Plett Clean campaign, which involves stencilling "the ocean starts here" on drainage points all over Plett, was a reminder that marine conservation does not start along the shoreline, estuaries and ocean, but inland where the pollutants of the ocean originate.

With this in mind, Plett Tourism, in collaboration with Nature's Valley Trust and Open Plan Pictures, made the most of the opportunity the festival offered, taking a fun and informative programme to children all over Plett during the school holidays.

Sponsored by The Market Square, and with food contributions from PicknPay and Woolworths, about 500 children in all of the communities enjoyed a screening of the animated movie Seal Team every afternoon of the festival week.

The screening was preceded by a short educational presentation on preservation of oceans and marine environment by Kellyn Whitehead, conservation volunteer manager and researcher at Nature's Valley Trust, with a clear message that everyone can make a difference, and why it's important to do so.

Addressing up to 100 children every afternoon, Whitehead's big-screen presen-tation engaged the youngsters on the wonders of the seas.

"One of our missions at Nature's Valley Trust is conservation education in all communities, and we welcomed the opportunity to reach the youth in a fun environment, about the impacts of plastics in our oceans, and how they can help alleviate the problem," Whitehead said.Bitou Speaker Claude Terblanche greets youngsters from New Horizons who came to see the screening of Seal Team.

At each event, the children were fed and given something to drink by local businesses. "Our thanks go out to People of Love in Kranshoek, Ubuntu Co-operative in Kurland, Die Plaas in New Horizons, Wittedrift Butchery in Wittedrift and Lyfstyle Tshisanyama in Kwanokuthula who cooked and delivered a hundred lunches daily for our future conservation warriors," said Whitehead.

Councillors also had the opportunity to speak directly to the children about their wards. They offered words of wisdom and motivation to the audiences who ranged from little ones on laps to both boisterous and well-conducted primary school learners.

The entrance fee to the show, staged by the Open Plan Pictures team, was a plastic bag of plastic trash collected in their neighbourhoods. Piles of bags were gathered each day and collected by the Bitou Waste Department.

The prize for working smart went to a small group who brought along bulging blue bags from a next-door waste collection point.

Youngsters from Kranshoek flocked to see a screening of Seal Team as part of the Plett Ocean Festival.