By Karen Cox
Dane Court geography teacher Sophie Hills has donned a Mr Blobby outfit for her regular litter-picking at Botany Bay today (August 14) after hitting a £1000 fundraising target for Ramsgate RNLI.
Sophie heads down to Botany Bay every day with her two young children to enjoy the freedom that the beach provides and the natural beauty of the surrounding area. However, that beauty was being marred by rubbish left behind by other beachgoers, so Sophie decided to do something about it.
Concerned about her children injuring themselves on discarded barbecues, bottles and cans, she returned with black sacks and collected eight large bin bags full of discarded rubbish.
She soon realised that not everything was rubbish. People were leaving behind clothing, beach towels, buckets and spades, an unused barbecue still in its box and even tents.
Sophie, who moved here from Southampton two years ago, washed the clothes and placed a rail outside her house selling items at 50p each. Anything that she felt was personal was advertised on the Lost and Found facebook page and held onto so people had a chance to collect it and blankets were donated to the local animal charities.
Having advertised what she was doing on social media she found that people were dropping items off for her at her house on their way back from the beach, and supportive local people were joining her on her evening beach cleans.
With the money starting to add up Sophie decided to donate all the funds she collects through a Justgiving page to the RNLI, with all the cash going to Ramsgate RNLI.
She decided to donate to the RNLI after hearing about the rescues that had been carried out and also because the beach is patrolled by RNLI Lifeguards.
Sophie said she wanted to give something back to the people who watched over the crowds on the beach and in the sea. She originally joked that if she reached £500 she would dress up as Mr Blobby for her litter pick. Today she reached £1000, way above what she anticipated collecting.
To mark the milestone Sophie is honouring her promise and is wearing the Mr Blobby outfit on the beach.
She said: “As a geography teacher I’m passionate about our environment so starting near to home keeping an area that I love clean was an obvious thing to do.
“I also use it for my mental health and as a means of fitness, especially when I’m pulling my camping trailer filled with black sacks along behind me up the slope from the beach.
“During the school holidays I take my children down to the beach but even in the winter I will go down nearly every day to enjoy the fresh air and the views.
“My dream is that a whole community is inspired to join in and we have people doing the same thing all along our coast, stopping all this so called rubbish from going into the sea and protecting our environment.”
Arrangements are being made for Sophie, her supportive husband Tom and their two children to visit Ramsgate RNLI station for a presentation.
In the meantime Sophie said that after she returns to work in September and the beaches become quieter, she has plans to take her litter picking further inland.
Superb. Well done.
PS – Don’t suppose you can drive a waste truck can you ? TDC might want a word.
This is the only way we’ll see any improvement to the area, individuals taking it upon themselves to clean up all the crud left by low vibrational doughnuts.
The more people do this, the more likely a culture change.
Moaning about the council on the internet won’t achieve anything.
Just been to South Wales coastline.How beautifully looked after.Saw plenty of bins and Council litter pickers.Then drive back to this dump.It is filthy.
Sorry Steve but walked 2 miles on Thames path outside London the other day.Bins every 50 yards.More people less litter.Just walked Louisa Bay to Dumpton Gap a total of 1300 steps.No litter bins and rubbish everywhere.My wife and I pick 50 pieces of rubbish a day.Our Council are also mismanaging the situation.
Ok… TDC is broke and a large percentage of the population of Thanet are messy.
It is what it is.
I think TDC should ban tourism as they cant cope.Thanet is easily the dirtiest place in the South East.
The other day I saw some one throw an empty coffee cup at my Black bag, and I picked up three black dog mess bags from my front garden. What sort of mentality do these people have who think they can just throw their rubbish away, and expect someone else to clear it up?