As a Brighton Sea Scouts Venturer, Sam noticed an alarming amount of microplastic appearing at the Holloway Bend Beach in Brighton. Concerned with impact these microplastics would have on the life in Port Phillip Bay, Sam was inspired to protect the bay as his project in pursuit of the Queen’s Scout Environment Award. The question was: where to start?
Sam was encouraged by Port Phillip Baykeeper Neil Blake to get involved in the Be the RE-Generation program. Together, Sam and Neil developed a program for Brighton Sea Scouts to use scientific methods to regularly monitor the beach for microplastics and sand movement.
Sam spent more than 90 hours doing beach litter audits at Holloway Bend beach and wrote a 34-page report on the mentoring program and data analysis.
In 2017, Sam won the Bayside Council Youth Leadership Award (from a strong field of 60 nominations) and in 2018 Sam was also awarded the Keep Victoria Beautiful 2018 Sustainable Cities Young Leaders Award. Working with Baykeeper Neil, Sam subsequently sought and gained grant funding to train 30 other Scout Groups in the monitoring program.
Scouts Victoria are now seeking the involvement of hundreds of other Scouts in Scout Groups along the rivers that feed water (and litter) into Port Philip Bay.
We had a goal of 200 youth joining the Baykeeper’s Be the RE-Generation project; Sam was one of 1,540 who stepped up. Your donations keep Port Phillip Baykeeper an independent voice for our Bay, working with all generations to convert anecdote and passion into evidence and action.
Your gift of $50 will fund learning technology like energy meters and nestbox cameras.
Your gift of $100 will enable us to pick up the phone when teachers ring for expert advice.
Your gift of $500 will deliver a teacher professional development session.
