“The Kandyan Plog” to give its full name was a well organised event by the Rotaract Club of Katugastota and held on 3rd August 2019, starting off at the Trinity Junior School grounds.
The Trinity College Interact Club was honoured to take part in this worthy cause. Following members of the Interact club joined the campaign with the guidance of Staff Advisor Mrs Agra Ratnayake:
- Jayaram Rahul
- Akmal Fareekdeen
- Yeshan De Silva
- Rajendiran Kavishkar
- Kanujan Kumarendran
- Mohammed Abdullah
- Jeywin Samarakoon
- Brian Desmond
What is Plogging?
The idea of Plogging is for participants to simultaneously pick up garbage while out jogging – a way to clean up our streets and prevent our rivers and oceans from being filled with plastic and garbage. Anyone can help since it is as easy as picking up a piece of plastic on the side of the road while getting your daily exercise.
Plogga is a movement created and followed by people who want to create a clean world. The word comes from the Swedish word “plocka” (pick up) and jogging mixed into one, creating a win-win solution for keeping the environment clean while improving public health.
The event proceedings
The Kandyan Plogga started with a Zumba session which energized the crowd. The challenge was to clean up the allocated route within two hours.
Gloves and garbage bags were provided to each group of five members, together with a Google map of the route. The entire city of Kandy was taken aback at the sight of young people clad in lime green t-shirts and skinnies raiding every street for stray garbage and polythene.
This ignited a sense of responsibility among the public and thus many people started helping the initiative by donating bags, gloves, and even much-needed refreshments.
The effort drained the participants of their energy but they kept going. Although no awards were given, the feeling of “service above self” made the participants true victors of this event.
The Interact Club of Trinity College is proud to have been a part of this social event and is looking forward to conduct more projects of similar nature and objectives in the near future.
