When you love something deeply you'll do everything in your power to protect it.

This truth lies at the heart of an upcoming beach clean-up taking place in Mount Maunganui on Saturday, March 21.

Beach Clean-Up organisers Diego Rosenberg and Noa Veiga (centre) during last year's beach clean-up. The Latin duo have organised another clean-up at Mount Maunganui's main beach on March 27. Photo: Marijke Meijer Smith

Organisers and friends Noa Veiga and Diego Rosenberg, hailing from Spain and Argentina respectively, acknowledge the old saying: 'home is where the heart is.”

'We believe in community and taking care of where we live,” says Noa. 'We love the Mount, it is such a beautiful place to live and where we now call home.”

Diego adds: 'Cleaning up the beach is the main reason, but it's also about education and giving different communities a chance to interact with likeminded people.”

It's the second clean-up they have organised, following a successful spruce-up last December.

More than 40 people, mainly from the Latin community plus the odd Kiwi and Chinese person, collected 15 bags of rubbish from different locations across Mount Maunganui.

They then held a barbecue and raffle afterwards where they gave away vouchers provided by eight local businesses who sponsored the clean-up.

Noa says the upcoming clean-up will follow the same format but they hope more young people children this time around.

'One day as a kid mum and dad asked if I wanted to have fun,” she remembers. 'So we went to the beach, started picking up rubbish and it was a lot of fun. I have this [stuck] in my mind, so I think it's good for kids to learn from a young age to do this.”

It's also an opportunity for Kiwis to befriend people from different backgrounds who share a common love for the environment, says Diego.

While we live in a small place, says Noa, there are people from right around the world living here.

'When we first set this up we also wanted to meet other while doing something good, something productive and add value to people's lifestyles.”

'Hopefully we can kick start something that will exceed us and in the years to come bring some sort of change on the way people view public places and where they live.”

To take part in the Beach Clean-Up head down to the Main Beach opposite Mount Drury on Saturday, March 21, at 9am.

For more information email Noa: [email protected] or Diego: [email protected] or view the Facebook event here.

It's never too young to teach children the importance of taking care of the place you call home. Photo: Marijke Meijer Smith