Whitehaven Sea Cadets are celebrating after they won a prestigious community social action award in the 2023 National Sea Cadets.

The award recognises the hard work that the cadets and volunteers put into a nationwide environmental and social action campaign which aimed to create over 10,500 square feet of new wildflower spaces where bees and pollinators can thrive.

Taking inspiration from the formal name for their unit, T.S. Bee, the campaign was named #SaveTheTSBees and saw the cadets send over 8,000 “Beebomb” wildflower seedballs to over 400 youth groups.

Including every sea cadet unit in Great Britain and dozens of local youth groups, encouraging the recipients to join their cause.

This was made possible thanks to funding from the Cumbria Community Foundation and Sellafield Ltd Transforming West Cumbria #CanDo programme

One of the cadets involved is Ordinary Cadet Connor Sweeney, he said: “Bees play such an important role as pollinators and yet there are less and less of them every year.

“Given our unit name, we decided to take a stand and help bring them back.

“Helping the environment has been at the heart of the project – we have used biodegradable envelopes, packing and labels and even our flyers were printed on seeded paper which will create even more flowers for the bees to thrive.”

The unit are also currently recruiting new members.

Open to everyone aged between 10 and 18, they meet on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6.30 – 9.00pm at Kent House behind Dixons department store, Carter Lane, Whitehaven, CA28 7DA

You can have a look at their Facebook page (@WhitehavenSCC) or send an email to co@tsbee.org.uk for more information