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Published Apr 29, 2017 at 8:00 am (Updated May 3, 2017 at 2:46 pm)

Getting stuck in: a group from Groupama Team France helped clean up

The America’s Cup Event Authority, America’s Cup Endeavour Programme and a number of America’s Cup teams supported Earth Day last weekend with a range of activities across Bermuda, home of the 35th America’s Cup, demonstrating their ongoing support for sustainability, announced in 2016 in the America’s Cup Sustainability Charter.

Earth Day is a global event each year, with more than one billion people in 192 countries taking part in what is the largest civic-focused day of action in the world.

As different Earth Day activities were running around the world, ACEA and America’s Cup team members took part in various activities throughout Bermuda. These included Oracle Team USA, Groupama Team France and ACEA cleaning and scrubbing sea turtle shells at the Bermuda Aquarium, while volunteers participated at various beach clean ups across Bermuda including America’s Cup Endeavour graduates and their families at Parson’s Bay Beach in the Royal Naval Dockyard and Builder’s Bay in St George’s, Groupama Team France cleaning up Marley Beach and Land Rover BAR cleaning up at Admiralty Cove.

Sustainability and environmental education are key components of the America’s Cup Endeavour Steam Education curriculum. Katrina Williams, West Endeavour co-ordinator reported that her team of America’s Cup Endeavour graduates collected over 23 bags of trash at Parson’s Bay. One of her students, Lara Backeberg, was excited to learn how much their group was able to accomplish in just one morning as part of the America’s Cup Earth Day activities.

Anne Hyde, executive director, Keep Bermuda Beautiful, adds, “Such a wonderful day with so many volunteers from the America’s Cup celebrating Earth Day in a meaningful way by cleaning up at various beaches around Bermuda!”

Finally, a group of ACEA team members joined volunteers and staff from the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo to help with multiple service projects supporting the Bermuda Zoological Society’s environmental education programme where 7,000 students per year participate in experiential learning activities at Trunk Island, a nature reserve and “living classroom” in Bermuda’s Harrington Sound.

Kate Hughes, America’s Cup Volunteer Programme manager, shared her experience: “Using an axe to cut concrete, shovelling rubble and soil into wheelbarrows and buckets, cementing metal poles into the ground so ultimately a shaded area can be built so that students can have outdoor classes on Trunk Island, it shows exactly what a difference you can make in just sparing three hours of your time. What an amazing feeling of job satisfaction!”