Beach Clean-up by Svitlana Buko

Our next GYSD story is from Svitlana Buko from Ukraine! This is going to be her first Global Youth Service Day, but we don't doubt that she is going to succeed!

 Preparing for coastal clean-up (assessment trip): 

I am FLEX 97 and it’s been 10 years since I’ve done any clean ups (was too busy with education, career and family I guess). I live in Sevastopol (Crimea, Ukraine) and Fiolent National Park beaches are my favorite places to go, however, no one is cleaning them. I spent my FLEX year in California and I know how community can help with beach clean ups. During FLEX year I got aquatinted with California “Save our Shores” Program organized by local community. The main goal of the program was to educate community about man-made debris and motivate local volunteers to clean the beaches  systematically and develop “adopt a beach program.” I see that Coastal Clean-up within GYSD provides a direct and tangible way to make a difference at the local level and still be a part of the World’s biggest service day.  I got a GYSD grant and I realize again that preparation, team training, planning is an integral part of successful eco project and takes a lot of time and commitment.  Coastal clean up kit recommends to scout out your site and evaluate, plan the event and analyze how much trash is out there. We got a small team together in the first week of April to check out the place and map out clean up implementation steps.  Wishing all the Flexes a productive preparation for their GYSD project this April and sunny greeting from the Black Sea!

Svitlana Buko FLEX 97 

Thank you Svitlana for your enthusiasm and staying in touch with FLEX and GYSD! Good luck with your project! :)

Have you already decided how you are going to celebrate Global Youth Service Day? Get in spired by our active alumni and join their projects or register your own at http://www.gysd.org/ !