Corporate responsibility can be fun and engaging, as Business Development Manager Stuart Gilbert tells us in this article about a recent piece of volunteering Pentagull did at Blackpool beach.

“We want the best for the North West and are aiming high, but the issues we need to tackle can't be solved unless everyone does their bit.” That is the call to arms on the SEA LIFE Blackpool website who in conjunction with Love my Beach, the Marine Conservation Society, Blackpool Council, the Environment Agency, Keep Britain Tidy and United Utilities are joining forces to keep Blackpool's beach clean.

At Pentagull we decided this was a call to arms we wanted to answer as most of the team are sandgrownun‘s (Blackpool speak for being born in Blackpool) and have grown up enjoying the beach and it’s now a place that our children enjoy too.

Over recent years the beach has won several awards due to the hard work put in to realise a goal of making Blackpool’s beaches the best they can be, but that can’t be done without people giving a little something back.

So, on the last weekend in June we attended our first beach clean and we roped in the children for some additional labour. When we arrived on a sunny (yes, you read that right) Saturday morning we were greeted by quite a large group of volunteers that were amassing at the RNLI station on the sea front. We were given our gear and area to work in and we set out grabbers and clipboard in hand to collect and track what rubbish there was to be found.

After an hour or so we had surprisingly filled 2 bin liners with everything from cigarette butts to t-shirts and much more in between. We returned valiantly to our starting point to hand in our rubbish and litter picking equipment having had an enjoyable time not only doing our bit for the beach but reaffirming to our children a valuable lesson about littering and looking after the environment.

We are looking forward to the next one and I have my fingers crossed the weather is just as good for the next time!