BOB and BOB MARLEY DAY CLEAN UP THE BEACHES
BOB's Your Garbage Picking Friend on Four Caribbean Islands
DeWitt Lee(right) and fellow BOB beach cleaner show their catch
By Stephen Weir for Caribbean Camera
Ignore the chill outside your door today—it’s Bob Marley Day in Toronto! DeWitt Lee wants you to picture yourself ankle-deep in warm Caribbean waters, taking part in the second annual BOB clean-up, held in memory of the late, great Bob Marley on February 6th.
BOB? It stands for Beautify Our Beaches. This is the second year volunteers from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, and St. Lucia will roll up their sleeves—or dive in—to clean up in Marley’s honor. Whether wading, snorkeling, or scuba diving, teams will be removing everything from plastic waste to hurricane debris—and in some cases, even abandoned vehicles.
While Marley’s family has organized clean-ups in Jamaica before, what makes BOB special is its regional reach. The clean-up now extends to other Caribbean nations, turning this into a wider movement. This year, the BOB clean-up runs from Bob Marley's birthday, February 6th, to March 22nd, aligning with the UN-declared World Water Day.
Here in Toronto, Bob Marley Day will kick off with a Canadian celebration: One Love - One Beach - One Flag at Queen's Park. The event features the raising of the RBG (red, black, and green) flag, with community members participating, including Jamaica’s Consul General, Mr. Kurt Davis.
Later, at 4 p.m. Eastern, there will be a Zoom presentation featuring participants from the various Caribbean beach clean-ups. You can tune in by visiting bit.ly/1love1beach.
When Caribbean Camera spoke to DeWitt Lee, a well-known GTA Black activist (and beloved Black Santa Claus), he shared how the vision of the Bob Marley Day of Service came to life:
“This year, I had the opportunity to present 1 Love - 1 Beach to the Caribbean Consular Corps at the Trinidad and Tobago Consulate, hoping to inspire more islands to pay homage to Bob Marley through acts of service,” Lee said.
In 2024, as Grenada prepared to celebrate its 50th anniversary of independence, Lee found a way to contribute. “I saw a special opportunity to join the wave of national pride by organizing clean-ups of 50 beaches and bays across Grenada, Carriacou, and Petite Martinique,” he explained. “What started as a Grenadian independence initiative turned into the first annual Bob Marley Day of Service - 1 Love 1 Beach, a Caribbean-wide clean-up.”
While much of the pollution near these beaches comes from cruise ships and careless tourists, Lee emphasizes that the responsibility to clean up often falls on the island nations themselves.
By the inaugural BOB Day, Lee had secured commitments from teams in St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, the Cayman Islands, and, of course, Jamaica. This year, with Canada becoming a digital leader in the campaign, the BOB movement continues to grow—and get wet!
Caribbean BOB team in Grenada
“We also see this as a chance for people of Caribbean descent living abroad to come home and make a difference during their visits,” Lee added. “And if you ask me, February is the best time of year for Caribbean-Canadians to head back.”
photos of DeWitt Lee with Consulates in Toronto, the rest are from last year BOB in Grenada and other islands
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