10 – <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2014</strong> Guildwood News & Views
Guildwood News & Views <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2014</strong> – 11 Spring <strong>2014</strong> Shoreline Cleanup Before the cleanup Saturday, May 10, was met with sunshine and warm weather, a perfect day to be up and about. For the Friends of Guild Park & Gardens that meant getting down and dirty picking up litter off the shoreline. As part of a newly becoming tradition, members of the Guildwood community and student volunteers from Sir Wilfrid Laurier CI (Laurier) participated in the Great Canadian Shoreline Clean-up and spent their Saturday morning walking down the shoreline and picking up trash left by hikers and visitors. The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, backed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Vancouver Aquarium Centre, is a project with a goal of trying to reduce the waste along the Canadian shorelines and deal with the serious environmental issues arising from shoreline litter. Since 1994 this organization has mobilized over 500,000 citizens and removed 1.1 million kg of trash from Canada's shores – a weight equivalent to 259 school buses. In 2012, 139,036 kg of litter was removed from 3102 km of shoreline. Rose Mitchell-Spohn and her family, as they have in the past, coordinated the recent cleanup and with the help of the volunteers and the Guildwood community, the group managed to clear up 41.94 kg garbage and 8.84 kg recyclables (about 111 pounds) over 2 km of road, forest path and shoreline. Each year, the Dirty Dozen list summarizes the highest number of collected litter items. Nationwide in 2012, key culprits were cigarettes/cigarette filters, food wrappers/containers, and plastic bags, which were all collected in great numbers. The Guild Team’s Dirty Dozen for Spring <strong>2014</strong> included tiny plastic pieces, tiny glass pieces, plastic bottle caps, tiny foam pieces, other plastic/foam, straws/stirrers, plastic beverage bottles, plastic cutlery, cigarette lighters, food wrappers, cigar tips, and toys. The most interesting item collected was a candle. As always, the event had a great showing from members of the community and students from Laurier but with little improvement from last year’s fall clean-up (which was hindered by the terrible weather). The group is encouraging the members of the Guildwood community to come out to the clean-ups and support the cause, but more important to be mindful of the waste they produce when going on walks in parks like the Guild. The Friends of Guildwood Park & Gardens invite everyone to join them on Saturday, September 20, for the Fall <strong>2014</strong> Shoreline Cleanup. (Meet 9:30 a.m. at the flagpole.) However, the event went smoothly with everyone smiling along the way. The Friends of Guild Park & Gardens would like to thank federal MP John McKay, provincial MPP Mitzie Hunter, and City Councillor Paul Ainslie who came out to participate in the cleanup as well as the group of students from Laurier. Furthermore they’d like to thank City of Toronto Parks, Forestry & Recreation Department, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Guildwood Village Community Association, the office of Councillor Ainslie for their support, and Guildwood valu-mart for the donation of snacks for the volunteers. Most of all they’d like to thank all the participants; they make this event possible and as fun as it is. Jonathan JoJo Chu --- Grade 11 Student, Sir Wilfrid Laurier CI After the cleanup