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Oct. 5 - Oct. 11, 2011
Volunteers clean up trash stock on W’field riverfront By Trevor Greenway You may wonder what broken beer bottles, a deflated inflatable raft and a bicycle have in common. They were all picked up as trash along the Gatineau River in Wakefield during the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup on
Sept. 24. “It really was shocking to see a bike, but what was worse was all the broken glass,” said Wanda Gibson of Save the Gatineau. “How unnecessary is it to be breaking glass in this day and age.” As it turned out, organizers presented the cleanup crew a
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fine fall day in which to work, with the high temperature rivaling that of some summer days. The colours also deepened on the weekend, making it one of the most pleasant Saturdays in the Hills thus far. Even so, more than 40 people made it their weekend mission to clean up the shores of the river at Wakefield. Another 25 or so showed up for a discussion afterwards at the Black Sheep Inn. Gibson said the 40 or so volunteers worked hard in the afternoon sun, pulling far more than their weight in trash. “We got at least 200 kilograms of garbage,” said Gibson. “A full truck worth of cans, beer bottles, a bike and an inflatable raft.”
John Lowden and Neil Faulkner found this bicycle in the Gatineau River sept. 24 during the Great Canadian Shorline Cleanup. Photo courtesy Debra Beattie
She said the worst area was the Peace Park directly in front of Kaffe 1870, but she feels it was
just the luck of the draw that the refuse hit shore where it did. To her surprise, the Wakefield Covered Bridge and the swimming rock were the cleanest areas, yielding only a handful of cigarette butts and some broken glass. Gibson said it was “astonishingly clean.” She can thank the youth of Wakefield for the clean bridge, as the Wakefield Youth Centre has been cleaning up the party rock on Friday nights since August. It was obvious the kids had done their job. Volunteers didn’t go home empty-handed, either. They were rewarded with a free breakfast and coffee and hot dogs from the Black Sheep Inn for their work.