ST SIMON, Hanover – The $500,000 anti-litter campaign in effect at the St Simon Primary School in Hanover was officially launched last Thursday.

The programme is part of a wider thrust to stem the contamination of the Lucea Harbour due to the environmentally damaging practices of residents living in the hills surrounding the town capital. It is being spearheaded by the Hanover Parish Development Committee (PDC), in collaboration with the final year Social Marketing student at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, Claudia Gardner.

“I want to thank all the sponsors who came on board for this very worthwhile project,” Gardner told the gathering of students, parents and sponsors on Thursday. “It is one we intend to expand to include all the 35 primary and all-age schools in the parish.”

She said the small school of 73 students, located some five miles from the capital, was chosen as it is one of the most neglected schools in the parish. “People ask, ‘Why St Simon? Why that country school in the bush?'” Gardner said. “I say, why not St Simon? The children are brilliant and mannerable, and they deserve to be selected.”

Already, the students have benefited from seminars and workshops on environmental preservation and good practices with representatives from the Hanover Health Department, National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), the Negril Coral Reef Preservation Society (NCRPS), the Negril Area Environmental Protection Trust and the Dolphin Head Trust.

The school has also received a general clean-up, and each classroom has been outfitted with a bin. In addition, a major tree planting and beautification exercise is scheduled for today.

This is to be followed in the coming weeks by a field trip to the Negril Royal Palm Reserve, and the Negril Recycling Centre, with the children being hosted for the day by Beaches Negril and Beaches Sandy Bay, which have thrown their support behind the campaign.

“The resorts’ commitment to the campaign was evident in the mass support of team members who turned out. Sesame Street was also on board, with the appearance of environmental character Grover who greeted the excited students following the event,” said Nathelie Taylor, regional public relations manager at Sandals and Beaches Resorts, Negril in a news release.

She noted that the resorts had also committed to having a mural painted at the school, and to accommodate a site inspection on sustainable tourism on March 30.

“The mural will be done by Paul Dunn, dive master and artist at Sandals Negril. Dunn, who is a member of the resort’s environmental team, has been painting for the past 10 years, with a special focus on capturing marine life on canvas,” Taylor said in the release.

The resorts’ involvement with the anti-litter campaign comes in the wake of its joint sponsorship initiative launched at Beaches Negril on February 9.

Dubbed ‘Champions for the Environment’, that initiative saw the resorts and their partners raising an estimated $10 million for the cash-strapped School’s Environment Programme, run by the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET).

The anti-litter campaign, meanwhile, is to culminate with a grand environmental exposition on April 5.

Nerris Hawthorne, chairperson of the PDC, told the Sunday Observer in an earlier interview that it was appropriate for the programme to target young children, as they would be most effective in spreading the message of change.

“If we can help the young people and they, in turn, can help their parents to learn that litter from the hills impacts on our shores (and) learn the proper methods of disposal from now, then we can look forward to a much cleaner town and a much healthier town,” she said.

Guest speaker at last Thursday’s function, Minister of Agriculture and Lands, Roger Clarke echoed similar sentiments.

“And a little child shall lead them,” said Clarke, who noted that the country was now suffering the effects of unhealthy environmental practices that threatened to damage the tourism product and change our lives, as we know it.