The award winning Love your Beach week is back for its second year, this time with more fun and games for all of the community to enjoy! Having recently won a silver award in the Best Environmental/Ecological Project Initiative at the All Ireland Community and Council Awards 2021, Galway City Council are once again proudly partnering with Clean Coasts Ireland. The events start on World Oceans Day, Wednesday 8th June.
The activities then move onto Claddagh Beach on Thursday 9th June with a beach clean-up at 5.30 pm with Clean Coasts and Galway Volunteer Centre followed by a talk at 6pm on ‘How beaches help us tackle climate change’ with Dr. Kevin Lynch, NUIG.
On Friday 10th at 5.30pm there will a beach clean-up with Atlantaquaria followed by a family friendly workshop with Curiocean at 6pm where The CuriOcean team will be bringing some fun, hands-on activities where anyone can learn about whales and dolphins. At 7pm it’s some drum fun with Lukasz Krzywon from Creative Together where you can learn drumming rhythms on the sand and also at 7pm, community Beach volleyball with Galway Volleyball Club.
Beach week 2022 finishes on Saturday 11th June with a beach clean-up at 11am with Bailte Slachtmara Bhearna (Barna Tidy Towns). At 11.30 am, Tom Cuffe, Bird Watch Ireland will give a talk on ‘Summer Birds of Galway Bay’ (Bring your Binoculars). At 12.30 pm Lukasz Krzywon from Creative Together will get creative and help us make some beautiful designs on the beach using what we can find there. At 1pm there will be community Beach Volleyball with Galway Volleyball Club, an introduction to beach volleyball for the public.
Speaking about the weeks activities, Tiarnan McCusker, Environmental Awareness Officer with Galway City Council said, ’’all of these events are free and open to the public so I hope as many Galwegians and Tourists alike can come and help out with the Beach cleans. There will be fun and insightful talks from experts, and music, art and sport but it’s really about everyone taking responsibility and protecting the wonderful beaches we have in Galway City.’’
Speaking about Love your Beach Week 2022, Dara Dever, Clean Coasts Officer said, “Clean Coasts are delighted to partner with Galway City Council on Love Your Beach Week again this year. The more people we can get to engage with our beautiful coast in a positive way, the more likely they will be maintained and improved into the future. There are already numerous active Clean Coasts groups throughout the city, some of whom are hosting these events. We would love to see new faces, young and old come along to these free events.”
Jason Craughwell from Galway Sports Partnership said, ‘’Galway Sports Partnership are delighted to be involved in the LYBW. Beaches are a positive place for activity and play in the city. Access if free and there are many activities our beaches can provide, from Volleyball, football, Olympic Handball, bowls, yoga and many more. Having clean accessible beaches in Galway is essential to having an Active City.”
For further information on clean coasts Ireland or to become a clean coasts group visit: www.cleancoasts.org
For a full program of events and litter clean ups on your local beach, please visit www.galwaycity.ie or email [email protected]
Source: Galway City Council
