A massive clean-up effort around the Shelly Bay Plaza resulted in 35 bags of regular trash and 39 bags of recycleables being collected in the space of two hours.It was all thanks to a tidy-up team of 35 people, including many father and son, and mother and daughter pairs, as well as whole families, participating in the January 14 early morning task.The clean up event was organised by Keep Bermuda Beautiful in order to help take care of all the garbage that had been carelessly discarded despite trash and recycling bins not being far away.Among the trash collected was a very large number of liquor bottles that had been thrown into the trees. Also collected were an odd assortment of bulky waste items including two pedal bike frames, a SHAD motorbike basket and a wire motorbike basket, car battery, car tyre, large plastic barrel, metal pipes and lumber.Keep Bermuda Beautiful’s executive director, Anne Hyde, mentioned that only two years ago KBB had had another clean up in and around the Shelly Bay Shopping Centre and 100 bags of trash had been collected. This year, they were back to clean up the litter that was left since that time. Ms Hyde noted that the debris included household trash, construction waste, and numerous liquor bottles and cans.Several young students, parents and families volunteered to lend a hand in getting the area clean. Some of those students were Mia Fung, Courtney Browne, Kristin Dill, Allie Parry and Alexa Manuel from Year 10 of BHS. They chose to be volunteers for KBB, in order to get community service hours for the Duke of Edinburgh Award. However, being able to gain community service hours wasn’t their only motivation, as Courtney stated: “I think Bermuda should look beautiful all the time, and a lot of young people like us can help to achieve that”.The girls had been volunteering for KBB every Saturday since the beginning of December. While it’s obvious that clearing the area of so much garbage and debris isn’t necessarily easy, Mia mentioned that “it’s a fun way to do community service” and that “it’s more fun when you have friends with you”.Another BHS student, Brianna Correia, said that she decided to attend the clean up with her mom, because she didn’t like seeing all the trash around Bermuda. “It made me feel bad for all of the trash that I produce” and that it makes her feel good knowing that she is doing her part to help the environment.Students from many other schools including Dellwood and Bermuda Institute all came to participate. When asked what brought him and his family (little brother and mom, Nikita Robinson) to the clean up, young Ajani Robinson said, “We do this every year, and we help to keep the environment safe so that we’ll have more visitors!”Nikita Robinson mentioned that every month, with The Ladies Room (on HOTT 107.5) she puts together a family volunteer event with a different charity. “We try to get families out volunteering” she said, and she tries to get her children out as much as possible, “just so that they can give back to the community”.