The Isle of Man’s community spirit has been praised following a weekend of clean-up events in villages and schools across the island at the start of a new island-wide campaign being launched during ’Year of Our Island’.

More than 250 children and adults took part in six events in three days, starting in Douglas with school children from Manor Park and Anagh Coar primary schools.

The school events were co-ordinated by Beach Buddies in conjunction with Isle of Man Friends of the Earth and Douglas Council as part of the ’Love Where You Live’ campaign and ’Year of Our Island’.

Mayor of Douglas Debbie Pitts attened both school events and took part in cleaning up the school grounds, before parents were invited by their children the following day to get involved in cleaning their own streets, foopaths, playgrounds and public areas.

More than 150 took part in the four school events, collecting 35 bags of rubbish, weighing 350kg. Two separate community clean-ups took place, organised by the villages of Jurby and Andreas, with just under 100 local residents getting involved, plus volunteers from Beach Buddies, who gave their support to the two events.

’It was without question an outstanding weekend and an outstanding success,’ said Beach Buddies founder Bill Dale. ’This is what the Isle of Man is all about - our very special and unique community spirit.

’This was ordinary people getting together to show they really care about their island and the environment and wildlife, and going out and doing something about it.

’To be honest, we would have been happy to see just a few dozen people getting involved as this was a first ever weekend like this, but to see more than 250 people from across the island getting together to make a difference was just fantastic.’

Andrea Howroyd, organiser of the event in Andreas, said their village clean-up had resulted in far more rubbish being collected than expected.

’I cannot believe the amount of rubbish, and the fact that there were two bikes dumped in hedgerows. Karen and I were so pleased with the turnout and the amount of rubbish that was collected.

’I hope our community initiative has legs, as they say, and this is just the start of more events within the village that bring people together. I think it made everyone appreciate yet again what a fabulous place our island and, in particular, our village is.’

Angela Quaggin, who organised a two-hour clean-up session in Jurby, was delighted with the response from the village.

’I’m pleased that Jurby has raised its game and has set the bar. I think we’ve started something positive in Jurby. We will definitely be doing this again.’

The two northern events saw 55 bags of rubbish collected, weighing 550kg. Each event ended with hot drinks and home made cakes, eagerly devoured in community halls where the most frequent question was: ’when are we doing this again?’

’If we don’t organise another event like this then I think there would be an uproar,’ said Andrea Howroyd. ’We’re making plans to hold another parish clean-up before the TT and four times a year from now on. It was definitely a major success.’

Beach Buddies is sponsored by FIM Capital.