OVER the past 5 months, Donegal Lifeguards and Leisure Training has proudly hosted numerous child and teen lifeguard training camp at Downings Beach.

One of the many vital responsibilities of a lifeguard is ensuring that our Blue Flag beaches retain their prestigious status.

Blue Flag beaches are recognised as the cleanest beaches in Ireland with pristine water quality. 

This is only possible thanks to the general public respecting our coastline using the bins provided or if bins are full or unavailable, bringing rubbish home.

If a beach loses its Blue Flag status, it often means that the water is no longer safe for swimming and the beach may have to close.

This can put the local Lifeguards’ jobs in jeopardy.

The young volunteers showing off some of the rubbish they collected.

Protecting our beaches is everyone’s responsibility.

Recently, the Rookie and NLA Teen Lifeguards have collected an incredible 89kg of rubbish from Downings Beach.  

All of this data was uploaded via the Clean Coasts app, a brilliant initiative by CleanCoasts.org who organise beach clean-ups and encourage volunteers across Ireland to record and share their efforts.

The young volunteers at Donegal Lifeguards are being recognised for their hard work and dedication in protecting Donegal’s coastline.

Some of the hard work being carried out by volunteers.

The Rookie and NLA Teen Lifeguards who collected an incredible 89kg of rubbish from Downings Beach.