Mother Nature provided some perfect weather for the two dozen volunteers who arrived at Memorial Park on Friday April 22nd to take part in the first annual Earth Day park clean-up hosted by the Friends of Memorial Park and The Meaford Independent.
The volunteers spent the afternoon scouring the trails, the playground, the campsites and the beach with large black trash bags in-hand collecting everything from pop bottles to casserole dishes, from fast food packaging to lost shoes.
Friends of Memorial Park is a grassroots organization which was formed by a handful of residents concerned about ensuring that the park remains as pristine as possible for this and future generations.
Memorial Park is a municipally owned facility that features 400 metres of shoreline, a picnic area, playground equipment, forested trails, as well as a full service campground which boasts several waterfront campsites. The park has become popular with residents and tourists alike, and is one of the few revenue generating facilities operated by the municipality.
Individual members of Friends of Memorial Park contribute in many different ways to the health of the park. Some attend the work-bees, others provide landscape design expertise while others organize the related activities.
At previous events, the organization has seen as many as half a dozen participants, so organizers were thrilled with a turnout of 24 on the holiday Friday.
Carla Hamilton, an employee of Invisible Fence along with her mother Joyce Blackburn were among those who dropped by the park to help with the clean-up. Invisible Fence has two bag pick-up stations located in the park which they donated so that those who arrive at the park with their four legged friends have a back-up option if they forget to bring their own bags. Invisible Fence has also donated bag stations to Beautiful Joe Park, and the Meaford Harbour.
Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound federal Liberal candidate Kimberley Love took some time away from the campaign trail to stop by the event and she along with two members of her campaign team spent more than an hour searching the park for unwanted refuse. Love told The Independent that she and her crew had spent the morning participating in the Earth Day clean-up in Owen Sound before arriving in Meaford.
The super-collector for the day was Meaford resident Jim Robins who managed to fill three large trash bags, and also collected a carpet which he found rolled up and discarded in the park.
After tromping through the forested park collecting trash, participants were able to cool off with some local organic apple cider donated by new Meaford business Willow Naturals, which was served in compostable cups supplied by Evolve eco-friendly toy store.
The Meaford Independent was proud to partner with Friends of Memorial Park to host the event, and on behalf of both organizations, we would like to thank everyone who participated in the clean-up:
Katharine Auslander, Ann Bayly, Joyce Blackburn, Suzanne Brown, Carla Hamilton, Sylvia Heckmann, Sydney Helland, Bent Iversen, John Kerr, Jason Kingshott, Kimberley Love, Samantha McInnis (and nephew Josh), Will Matthews (and daughter Alisha), Gunter Neumann, Julie Paleczny, Lee-Anne Renton, Jim Robins, Jeff Suchak, Lorene Taylor, Sam Vance, Zack Vance, Mary Ann Wark, Cassondra Wilson
