November 15, 2019

As part of our community service duties, we decided to create a group of like-minded individuals with passion and concern for the community which we live in. The aim was to promote a better future for our society through student-led initiatives tackling a variety of issues from the environment to social equality. That was the beginning of the Community Service Action Team (CSAT), or what we playfully call the ‘Fundraisers’. Initially, we were stuck over what to do for our first project, constantly changing ideas and trying out new things. We settled on an initiative that will allow our wider Bangkok Prep community to take part in: a Beach Cleanup in Bang Saen. Inspired by the current youth-led climate change protests, we decided to take action on our own.

And so the journey began. We did research on the location and costs, created a survey, organised a fundraising bake sale and coffee run, recruited teachers to come along, filled out paperwork and convinced our friends to join. Weeks and weeks of hard work and effort was put in but we all agree that it was all worth it. Twenty people signed up and we, as two teams, managed to collect around 25 kg of trash. All of them were picked up and organised into the following categories: paper, plastic, food waste, metals and non-recyclables. Our efforts did not go unnoticed as the local people became more mindful of their impact on the environment and gladly helped us in the clean-up. We realised that even just our presence can encourage people to become more environmentally aware. By sacrificing our weekend for the wider benefit, we were rewarded with this sense of fulfilment and pride. The lunch break was a time to enjoy ourselves. We ate at a beachside restaurant and enjoyed the camaraderie of friends gathering, roasted chicken and prawn before going off on another short round of picking up trash before leaving for Bangkok.

Ultimately, we came home feeling proud of we have accomplished, contributing to our community in order to make it a cleaner place; no matter how small our contribution may seem to be, we still consider it a first step that will hopefully inspire many more to do the same. The world is facing many major issues and it is our generation that needs to face up to fix these problems that are left for us, now. We aim for our action team to continue to prosper and receive more support from the school community so please stay tuned for many projects in the year!