By Shauna Jemmott

WITH the aim of beautifying the Georgetown Seawall area, and building a sense of community for other projects, a United States Embassy official started a project titled ‘Take Time Tuesday’ to build on a clean, safe and friendly environment.MD Mitchell, who’s employed at the US Embassy as a Counsellor/Officer, said he was impressed by the beach from the first day he visited the Georgetown Seawall and thought it needed a little maintenance.

As a result, he and his wife, along with two other individuals, decided to start the project on Martin Luther King’s Day, January 18 this year.
Having worked in the field of environmental protection before migrating to Guyana late last year to work at the US Embassy, Mitchell said the Georgetown Seawall was the venue for his first sight-seeing outing.
“I came here in Guyana in November, and I’m looking for something I could do,” Mitchell said. “This is the first place I ever visited when I came.”
While his country, the USA, is probably millions of miles away, he said, “The ocean connects us all; so that is why I picked this place.”
On the first day, the cleaning party met at 15:00hrs, and while they recognised that the heat of the sun could have been discouraging, it did not stop them. They, however, decided to return to the beach every Tuesday at 17:00hrs to clean for one hour; and after word spread through word of mouth and Facebook, the group grew from four on the first day to 50 last Tuesday.
He said that looking at the growth of the campaign is “very exciting to watch,” and that even though “we didn’t try to do the big event, we’re just like growing organically; the word is spreading kind of exponentially now, with people telling people.”
The band now includes Georgetown Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan; controversial Chinese businessman, Bai Shan Lin; Guyanese employees at the US embassy; artists; individuals; other Chinese nationals from some of the Chinese businesses here; students, and other individuals; but the majority remains Guyanese.
“This is supported by people at the embassy, but it’s not an embassy event,” Mitchell said, adding that the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown has been very helpful in cleaning, transporting and dumping of the trash.
Four weeks ago, some representatives from the M&CC joined them and made the truck available. And for the first time, the new Deputy Mayor had joined the party.
“They came out to see what was going on, and to say, ‘How can we help,’” Mitchell said, adding:

“Ever since, the city has just signed on; it is really supportive. We’re hoping to get some leaders to keep it going. It’s not just cleaning the trash, but it builds a sense of community.”
The Deputy Mayor, meanwhile, has dubbed the initiative “Awesome!” and called on all Guyanese to follow suit and adopt a space to help make Guyana a green economy.
“It’s an awesome initiative by the American Embassy. And if we can have foreigners who can come and see the beauty of our city and try to preserve and enhance and clean up our city, then every resident of Georgetown should be helping to do the same, not only on our seawalls, but in your own little space,” Duncan told the Guyana Chronicle.
He also extended an invitation to organisations, businesses and the general public to join the US Embassy campaign every Tuesday afternoon from 17:00 to 18:00hrs.
“Let’s help clean up our seawall! It’s ours!” Duncan said.