DIVING IN WITH OCEAN EXPLORERS
Plastic Free North Devon’s Ocean Explorers education outreach program provides an amazing opportunity for local secondary school pupils to connect with nature at Lundy Island.
Local grassroots environmental charity Plastic Free North Devon (PFND) launch their flagship Ocean Explorers project this week, with the first of a series of exciting educational experiences at iconic local landmark Lundy. One of the aims of Ocean Explorers is to inspire the next generation to connect with nature, experiencing first hand the increasingly well documented benefits for physical and mental health at the same time as learning about the marine environment and conservation.
To achieve this aim, the charity has teamed up with local secondary schools Ilfracombe Academy, Pilton Community College, Park Community School, and Braunton Academy to deliver educational trips to Lundy, allowing the children to experience this stunning landscape and marine environment for themselves. The children will then be sharing what they have learnt with their peers and encouraging everyone to protect what we all love.
The first snorkelling training session took place last week, with the children all taking to the swimming pool to build up their skills and confidence before this week’s first experience snorkelling with the seals at Lundy. The Lundy trips will be delivered with the expertise of local businesses ‘Lundy Divers’ and ‘Easy Divers’, so also helping to support our local economy.
Claire Moodie, Plastic Free North Devon’s CEO, had this to say :
“We’re really excited to launch this new phase of our Ocean Explorers project. One of the issues that came to light during our initial pilot phase evaluation of the virtual reality experiences we delivered in 2019 was that the paradise ‘on our doorstep’ is vastly more accessible to some than others. North Devon unfortunately has significant levels of deprivation and for many children living just a little way inland, the opportunities to experience the well documented healing effects of nature simply aren’t there. With these expeditions we are proud to be able to provide these children with an experience they would otherwise not have had and grateful to our funders for this opportunity to inspire the next generation. “
And this is just the start of the Ocean Explorer experience offered by the charity; the charity promises more to come with their bespoke, innovative virtual reality experiences coming to a location near you this summer.
This project to educate and inspire the next generation has been made possible thanks to specific funding from Fullabrook, North Devon AONB, Garfield and Weston Badur Foundation, and holidaycottages.co.uk (an official ‘impact maker’ who sponsored part of the project under our
However none of our work is possible without our consistent yearly core funders, The Pickwell foundation and Turnstyles Design (PFND - ‘Game changer’ , under our business partnerships framework).
If you are interested on supporting stage 2 of this project which we hope to commence in the autumn please get in touch: plasticfreenorthdevon@gmail.com.