MANITOULIN—The second annual Manitoulin Island garbage cleanup competition was a huge success this year and the number of garbage bags that were filled far exceeded the goals.
“Our goal this year was to have 300 bags of garbage collected from over 70 kilometres of Manitoulin roadsides, streams and shorelines,” said Liam Campbell, environmental technologist with Manitoulin Streams which hosted the competition. “The total results this year were an overwhelming 546 bags of garbage collected by 600 individuals from 178 kilometres of roads, streams and shorelines!”
“We can’t thank the citizens of the Island enough and need to give a special shoutout to all the youth of Manitoulin,” stated Mr. Campbell. “In total 68 percent of the garbage collected was done by students, particularly the students from Wasse-Abin Pontiac School in Wiikwemkoong.”
The contest ran from April 3 to May 3, with prizes eligible to be won in fun family and individual competitions. “This year’s event was a huge success with 40 submissions for our contest, despite the less than ideal spring weather we had through the month of April,” continued Mr. Campbell.
Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory won the community clean up award, with 273 people collecting a total of 386 bags of garbage. Assiginack Township was second with 41 bags of garbage collected by 73 people. Central Manitoulin was third with 31 bags of garbage collected by 54 people, followed by NEMI with 26 bags of garbage collected by 11 people. A total of 142 people took part in the garbage clean up in Gore Bay/Gordon-Barrie Island with 21 bags of garbage collected. And in Billings 20 people were able to fill 20 bags of garbage.
The School Clean-up award went to Wasse Abin Pontiac elementary school which collected 319 bags of garbage. Assiginack Public School (Manitowaning) collected 16 garbage bags with Charles McLean Public School (Gore Bay) collecting a total of 15 bags of garbage.
In the business cleanup award category, the Assiginack Fire Department collected 14 bags of garbage followed by Bousquet Realty collecting 12 bags of garbage and the Little Current United Church collecting 11 bags of garbage.
The Garbage Cleanup Hero award was won by Jamie Pyette who collected 19 bags of garbage over seven days. The Tallest Coffee Cup Stack award was won by Roen Deschenes (who collected a total of 20 cups).
“And the Garg-AGE-Gap award goes to Luka, Lily Laende and Grandad, a 68-year age difference,” said Mr. Campbell. He added, “while the event may be over, we still love to see eco-heroes out in the community, so if you get out and collect any more garbage this year send us a photo and we will showcase the important work of cleaning up trash and protecting Manitoulin Island’s environment.”
