MPC students stand behind the new garbage bins provided by VROMI.
~ VROMI places garbage bins ~
COLE BAY--Students of Milton Peters College (MPC) HAVO-five class embarked on a class project to clean up the flagpole at Bell’s Lookout Point, Cole Bay Hill, on Saturday, February 22.
The students were joined by their teacher Frank Detering, the Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI, St. Maarten Nature Foundation and Pelican Peak, who all came together for the clean-up project.
The clean-up initiative was part of a project for the students’ biology class, which focused on the environment. The class was given a task to come up with an assignment that would provide a benefit to their environment.
According to the class, they noticed many areas on the island that were littered with trash. They disliked the idea of tourists visiting the island and viewing such a state; they felt this would give the island a “bad name”.
The students chose the flagpole for their clean-up project because they noticed that this area in particular is a frequent hotspot for tourists, and that there were no garbage bins in the vicinity, resulting in persons littering the area.
The class contacted VROMI to assist them with their initiative by providing garbage bins to foster proper garbage disposal. VROMI answered their call and delivered two garbage bins to the site on Friday, February 21.
VROMI Minister Christopher Wever, along with VROMI’s Johannes Schaminee and Russell Bell, a member of the family that owns the property, were at the location on Friday afternoon to inspect the garbage bins and to ensure that they were securely placed.
“Although we know that this project is small, we hope that people will start to use the garbage bins instead of littering,” said student Nacirfa Drijvers.
The class said they hope that with this project they have helped the environment and they send the message to everyone to do their part to help keep the island clean.
Wever encourages persons to keep the property clean by “properly disposing of trash and refraining from littering.”
