47 volunteers turned out on Saturday 26th February for our first activity for 2022. 37 of these split into six groups to clean up Prom beaches – Norman Bay, Squeaky/Picnic/Whisky Bays, Darby beach, Cotters beach, Shallow Inlet off Hourigans Lane and Five-Mile beach. Each group returned to base with their own adventures to relate and laden with bags bulging with rubbish. After it was sorted, counted, weighed and recorded for the Tangaroa Blue Foundation, the tally for the day was 120 kg of rubbish collected.
Possibly because of the persistent easterlies this summer, Five Mile Beach had the most rubbish with 66 kg collected. While western beaches such as Cotters gave up much less rubbish than usual. As in other years, the types of rubbish found ranged from tiny scraps of plastic to large immoveable items which had to be left behind.
The other 10 volunteers remained behind to build tree-guards. They finished with a record daily tally of 64 guards completed – 134 down, 66 to go.
The Friends of the Prom volunteers are saddened to hear Max has passed away on Tuesday 8th February 2022, aged 87. Max had been made a life member because of his valued contribution to our group over nearly 30 years.
He was a also one of the original nursery volunteers, that dedicated crew which visits the nursery every second Thursday without fail. We fondly remember Max as a steadying presence – friendly, reliable, practical and funny. We were so privileged to work along side Max all that time.
Our thoughts are with his family and close friends.
Max didn’t want a funeral. Instead his family arranged a series of functions in the district to celebrate his life including sharing pre-dinner drinks at the Stockyards campsite with Friends of the Prom volunteers after their Beach Clean activity on Saturday 26th February..
Friends of the Prom acknowledges the Traditional Aboriginal Custodians of Country throughout Australia and pay our respects to them, their culture and their Elders, past, present and future.