Thank you to everyone who participated in our Rotary Earth Day celebration and challenge.
Even though this was not a fundraiser, we still received $428 in donations for Ocean Legacy.
We served more than 200 free hotdogs and drinks to the kids and parents who participated. Our club filled a pickup truck with trash from the bushes around Transfer Beach and Slack Point.
We want to thank our amazing team of Interactors from the Ladysmith Senior Secondary School for their help and keeping it fun with face painting, games and seedlings in the spirit of Earth Day.
We appreciate the support of our sponsor LDCU who provided funds, a tent and signage, 49th Parallel Grocery provided the wieners, Ladysmith Chronicle for media support and the town for providing bags, gloves and of course the location.
We were very impressed with how clean Transfer Beach Park was. Kudos to the town employees and park visitors for keeping the trash in the trash cans.
We were saddened to see all of the doggie poop bags that were filled and then just tossed into the bushes. How does it make sense to make the effort to pick up the poop, put it into a single use plastic bag and then instead of walking over to the nearest garbage, just toss it into the bushes?
They may be compostable but it is clear that they take a long time to break down into microplastics.
The environment is one of Rotary International’s key areas of focus so next year we will do this again and hope to see you there.
Gerry Beltgens
Rotary Club of Ladysmith