Our school started this trip on February 11, 2022. The eleventh grade students went to Repulse Bay to clean the beach together. Originally, we thought that it was going to rain and there would be cold winds that day, but it turned out, unexpectedly, to be very good weather, even sunny! The sun was shining brightly with blue skies and only a few clouds.
Under the guidance of our Taiwan Tourism Bureau, the eleventh grade students put on gloves, picked up garbage bags and tongs, and walked down the beach. The official from the Tourism Bureau said, "It's been cold recently, and there's not much garbage on the beach." But our students still found plastic, straws, paper scraps, bottle caps and other garbage from the sand. Our students didn't ask who threw it away, and they didn't complain about why there was so much garbage. Experiencing this, our students decided that each of us should protect and treat the environment respectfully. So as the tide rose and fell, our students bent down to pick up all the garbage they saw.
In a little over an hour, we picked up 12 bags of garbage, big and small. The students said to me, "We can clean the beach longer." On the return trip, I passed the photos of the beach cleaning to the parents. The parents sent a message saying, "The children have been looking forward to this the night before and think this is a very meaningful activity." I turned my head and saw that the students were sound asleep. I think they were tired, but at peace with the work they had just done.
2022年2月11日的開學，十一年級一起到了淺水灣淨灘。原本以為前幾日陰雨綿綿，當天大概也會寒風陣陣，殊不知卻是個意外晴朗的好天氣，太陽高照，海天一色。
十一年級的孩子們在觀光局的先生指引下，戴起了手套、拿起垃圾袋與夾子，走下沙灘。觀光局的先生說：「最近天冷，沙灘上沒有太多垃圾。」但孩子們還是從沙子間閃爍的光點間，找到了塑膠、吸管、紙屑、瓶蓋等各種垃圾。「這都是我們丟的垃圾！」孩子們沒有問這是誰丟的，沒有抱怨為什麼會有這麼多垃圾，面對大自然，孩子們認定了每一個我們都應該一起保護與善待環境，所以在浪潮起落的同時，孩子們一一彎腰拾起眼前所見的所有垃圾。
一個多小時的時間，孩子們撿了大大小小共十二袋的垃圾，孩子跟我說：「我們淨灘時間可以更長。」回程的車上，我把淨灘的照片傳給家長，家長傳訊息說：「孩子從前一晚就很期待，覺得這是很有意義的活動。」我轉頭看，孩子們沉沉睡去。我想，他們心裡一定也很踏。