“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller

“Individual commitment to a group effort–that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” – Vince Lombardi

More than 10,000 volunteers from 84 barangays and 32 different groups from La Union schools and organizations participated last September 19, 2015 for the International Coastal Clean-up Day. A total of at least 18,000 kilos of trash was recorded from the river and coastal haulings.

The clean up organized by SIFCARE with the assistance of the Rotary Club of San Juan headed by Sangguniang Bayan Member Reginald Nang, Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Environmental and Natural Resources (DENR), and Local Government Units (LGU). It included both coastal and upland communities where rivers pass since it was identified that one of the major cause of ocean and coastal trash is from estuaries or river. Before the ICC Day, volunteers of SIFCARE oriented groups from Agoo to Bangar in preparation for the provincial clean up. The volunteers were from primary and secondary public and private schools, colleges and universities, Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs and Knights of Columbus of La Union, government agencies, barangay councils, 4Ps and other civic sector organizations.

Due the commitment of the volunteers, the 2015 La Union report has surpassed in great lengths the record of last year with only 400 volunteers. Another milestone reached this year for ICC is the commitment of some volunteer groups to conduct weekly coastal clean-up as group service towards Mother Earth.