About 225 people took advantage of the brief respite from the rain last Saturday to participate in the annual community cleanup project throughout Woolwich Township as a part of Healthy Communities Month.
That number included most of the area’s service and community association clubs, the cubs and the scouts, as well as the green-team from Quarry Communications in St. Jacobs. Altogether they managed to collect about 150 bags of garbage to help create a cleaner and greener community by walking the roads and gathering any trash they found.
“And who knows how many other residents took up the challenge to take 20 minutes or half an hour to help clean up the neighbourhood,” said Coun. Mark Bauman, who also added that there has been a trend in the past few years of less garbage along the township’s roads.
“It seems to be that people are being a little more responsible,” he said.
That same day, the Kiwanis Club of Elmira took the lead in planting 30 trees along Barnswallow Drive in conjunction with the township. Allan Poffenroth suggested that if the township paid for the trees, the Kiwanis Club would provide the labour, an arrangement that Bauman said worked in everybody’s favour.
“We can plant twice as many trees for the same price,” he said.
Today (Saturday), TWEEC (Township of Woolwich Economic Enhancement Committee) is undertaking another tree planting project in the Elmira industrial lands off Union Street. Bauman, who is the chair of TWEEC, said he hopes to have another 500 trees planted by the end of the day – depending on the weather and the number of volunteers they can get out.
The planting starts around 8:30 a.m. and will go until noon. Bauman encouraged anyone who is interested in helping out by planting a few trees can just show up ready to work.
“Bring a shovel and we’ll find you a job to help with,” he said.
