Township roads will be busy this morning (Saturday) as community groups and individual volunteers will be taking to the streets and tackling the trash for Community Clean-Up Day, a part of Healthy Communities Month.
The event, hosted by the Township of Woolwich Environmental Enhancement Committee (TWEEC) encourages local residents to take responsibility for the upkeep of their community by ensuring the streets, parks and roadside ditches are clean and free of litter. Volunteers will be provided with garbage bags and asked to do a litter-pick.
“It’s a way to meet your neighbours and do some good work at the same time,” said Ann Roberts, the township’s trails coordinator. “It’s also an educational thing. People might be a bit more mindful about where they put their trash if they know that it has to get cleaned up somehow.”
Groups have already signed up to help out, but individual volunteers are invited to join the efforts at a location of their choice. Most groups will be working between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and noon, with the exception of Heidelberg residents, who will be participating between 1 and 4 p.m.
“Events like this one send out the message that you can help by just doing a simple thing like picking up litter,” noted Roberts.
In Elmira, there will be four sites where volunteers can help out with the clean up. The first is Victoria Glen, which will include not only a cleanup but also a trail upgrade with new woodchips. This event begins at 10 a.m.
Garbage bags will be distributed at the Southfield business park east of Union Street, between Oriole Parkway and the curve in Union Street at the truck service depot. Scouting groups will also be planting cattails around the storm pond there.
Another group will be meeting at Second and Brookmead streets. The fourth group will be conducting a cleanup at the ‘Adopt a Road’ site on South Field Drive, from Tim Hortons to Scotch Line and New Jerusalem Road. This group will be meeting at 8:30 a.m.
St. Jacobs residents can add to the collaborative efforts by doing their part at the Mill Race and dam at Three Bridges Road and the Healthy Valley Trail behind the fire hall, at Snider Park or at Water Street Park.
For those wishing to participate in Breslau, a group will be meeting at the new community centre. In Maryhill, join up with others in the park. Heidelberg residents are invited to meet up at Heidelberg Park. In Bloomingdale, a team will start their project between the Bloomingdale Mennonite Church and the Snyder’s Flats entrance. Floradale participants should meet at the Floradale dam.
For more information about the event, call Ann Roberts at 519-669-6027 or 519-664-2613, ext. 6027 or e-mail aroberts@woolwich.ca.
