At first, Reverend Cornelis Visser is still a bit awkward on his knees on the SUP board, but after a few hundred meters he dares to stand up straight. A great victory because it is only the second time for the Zaankanter that he has done it. And it’s all for a good cause. To collect litter in the Westzijderveld and he does this with young people from his church. Awareness following Merijn Tinga, the plastic soup surfer.
“I think the young people also like this more than an hour in church,” says the pastor just before the start of the tour. From Westzaan it goes to the windmill Het Prinsenhof where a film is shown about the trip that Merijn Tinga made on the Rhine. “That was no less than 1200 kilometers, in that respect what we do is only a modest piece.” But it is of great value because sustainability is an important theme in the Zaanse Protestant Church. Visser also regularly participates in all kinds of campaigns to clean up litter.
litter
Meanwhile, the youngsters are having a great time on the water. A nice evening sun and almost no dirt or rubbish in sight. What do they actually think of that litter? Because isn’t it the young people who just throw everything on the street? “Well,” says one, “it’s not that bad at our school. Most of it just goes in the trash. But when they’re on their bicycles, they often throw an empty can on the street.”
Fall
The pastor has long agreed that there is little plastic and other waste in the water. Because he will stay there, but he wouldn’t know what to do if he had to fish something out of the water. “Of course they all hope I fall off,” he says with a big smile, “nothing nicer than a pastor who falls into the water.”