MANITOULIN—Manitoulin Island residents, it’s time to take out, or in this case, pick up the garbage!
Manitoulin Streams Improvement Association (MSIA) is holding its annual Island-wide garbage cleanup event. “This is our fourth year of running the Island-wide event, which will take place starting April 1 and continuing through April,” said Liam Campbell, of MSIA.
“We normally get several hundred people picking up trash on the Island during the event,” said Mr. Campbell. “Once the snow melts it is easy to see any garbage in the ditches around Manitoulin, and people are encouraged to clean up the garbage in their community. This event brings awareness of the trash that is thrown out and ends up in areas like ditches.”
Mr. Campbell pointed out the newest component of the garbage clean up event is the ‘Fantastic Four’ category. Participants are encouraged to send MSIA a photo of ‘your’ group of four and how much garbage your group has collected. The most garbage collected by a group wins. “With this event we are just trying to promote the community aspect and getting more people out picking up garbage.”
“We’re bringing back all the exciting challenges and prizes from past years, so grab your gloves, gather your teams, and start cleaning up for a chance to win big or claim the coveted Garbage Cleanup trophies for your school, town, or businesses,” said Mr. Campbell. Last year’s champions included the school cleanup award going to Assiginack Public School, the community cleanup award being won by the Town of Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands (NEMI), with the business clean up award going to the Little Current United Church.
There is the usual ‘tallest coffee cup stacked’ category (with participants taking a picture of themselves next to their stack of coffee cups-tallest stack wins!), the garbage cleanup hero award with the individual who collects garbage the most days through the event winning this category.
“We have the ‘garb-age-gap category’ as part of the contest,” said Mr. Campbell. “Grab your grandparents and take the babies for a collection stroll. The biggest age difference between (the oldest and youngest) participants wins.”
Mr. Campbell pointed out there is an overall draw for the cleanup, with more participation giving you more chances to win. Each day you send a photo of yourself collecting garbage equals one entry to the overall draw. There are three prizes to be won with the names of winning individuals to be drawn randomly.
“If people want to check out the rules of the contest, they can access this by going on the Manitoulin Streams Facebook page or on Instagram,” said Mr. Campbell. To submit your photos for the garbage cleanup contest send them to us in private Messager on Facebook or Instagram or send us an email at getinvolved.manitoulinstreams@gmail.com With your photos submission let us know how many bags you collected, for how long you collected, and how much distance you covered.”
