The 33rd annual Earth Day Clean Up on Saturday, April 20, 2024 was organized by the:
Oakville Community Centre for Peace, Ecology and Human Rights,
P.O. Box 52007, Oakville, ON L6J 7N5
(905) 849-5501, info@oakvillepeacecentre.org, oakvillepeacecentre.org
Thursday, April 25, 2024
1,325+ Volunteers Pitch-in at Sixty-seven Nature Sites:
Earth Day Clean Up in Oakville a Big Success!
Site Coordinators at the 33rd annual Earth Day Clean Up of Oakville Nature Sites on Saturday, April 20th reported that our beautiful parks, trails, ravines, woodlots and lakefront were much cleaner compared to previous years.
There was a substantial reduction in the total weight of garbage collected and fewer large pieces of trash removed from Oakville green spaces at the annual Clean Up.
The community is increasingly adopting a no-litter policy with many different constituencies contributing to the visibly noticeable successes made by these collective efforts.
The sixty-seven Site Coordinators with the Oakville Community Centre for Peace, Ecology and Human Rights, schools, local government, Parks Ambassadors, Town Parks and Open Space Department staff, dog walkers and trail walkers disgusted by strewn garbage, civic minded citizens and many others are all now together contributing to raising awareness about the benefits of non-littering and are maintaining the cleanliness of Oakville’s green spaces.
The early spring this year and the fact there has been no snow on the ground covering up trash over the winter also contributed to the lesser amounts picked up at our event in late April as much of it was no doubt already picked up earlier by Parks workers and civic minded residents.
Under cool but dry skies, participants expressed appreciation for the event being organized and pledged to join future Clean Ups as well.
Clean Up attracts Major Sponsors
1,325 Clean Up volunteers will be enjoying a free small box of popcorn at Film.ca Cinemas on Speers Road thanks to a coupon given to all volunteers with their thank you letter from the organizers.
This year’s Clean Up was primarily sponsored by Oakville’s Parks and Open Space Department which provided a grant, bags, disposable gloves and hand sanitizers for all sites and placed fifteen mobile signs publicizing the event throughout the community.
Halton Region Waste Management hired Miller Waste Systems to pick up all of the collected trash on the day of the event.
Panago Pizza on Neyagawa Boulevard baked fifty large pies for volunteers at sixteen various sites in north Oakville while Panago Pizza on Cornwall Drive at Trafalgar Road baked forty large pies for ten southeast Oakville Clean Up sites.
Starbucks donated baked goods for four Clean Up sites as well as drinking cups for Site Coordinators from all Oakville Starbucks coffeeshops.
Sponsorships were also received from several local businesses, many resident associations, faith groups and community organizations.
Highlights of the 33rd annual Earth Day Clean Up
The theme for the 2024 community-wide event is that we are “For a clean, green, litter-free Oakville” and in the aftermath of the 2024 Earth Day Clean Up, Oakville is in fact cleaner, greener and more litter-free!
The sixty-seven Site Coordinators worked hard to ensure a successful Clean Up by greeting the volunteers, handing out bags and gloves and directing them as to where to pitch-in.
2,610 kilograms of garbage and metal was trucked away by Miller Waste Systems on Saturday.
There was a wide variety of interesting items picked up and removed including metal tubes, one-use plastics for wrappers and bottles, a no parking sign, alcohol bottles, car hood, grocery carts, bike frame, board with rusty nails, kiddie pool, Christmas wreath now being reutilized, wig, cigarette butts, glasses, horseshoe, BBQ grill, garden plant hangers, bird bath, wire, brick, fireworks, car fender, bicycle wheel, metal weed puller, statue of a religious God, metal bucket, broken suitcase, BBQ gas tank, credit cards, clothing rack, broken china plates, sheet metal, sprinkler head, sports balls, hockey puck, swing, underwear, shoes, rake, metal shelf, vapes, glass, a dead beaver, pipe, metal chain, plastic lawn chair, forty pound steel plate, car seat, tires, sod, PVC pipe, toys, coffee maker, garbage bin, blue bin, fence posts and a scooter in working order.
The annual Earth Day Clean Up is now organized on a Ward by Ward basis:
Site Coordinators reported that more than 1,325 volunteers pitched-in on Saturday morning or afternoon in support of the 33rd annual Earth Day Clean Up.
In Ward One, seven sites were cleaned up by a total of 146 volunteers including Bronte Bluffs Park, Bronte Creek Provincial Park, Bronte Harbour, Bronte Road at the QEW Carpool, Burloak Drive and QEW, Lakeshore Woods and Valleyridge Park and trails.
For Ward Two, there were ten sites confirmed for the Clean Up including Aldercrest Park, Burnet Street Park, Coronation Park, St. Aidan’s Park and Hogs Back Park, Glen Oak Creek Trail South, Hopedale Park, Indian Ridge Trail, Kerr Street North, Kinoak Arena and Brook Valley Park and the site for Woodhaven Park and Sedgewick Park. These areas were cleaned up by a total of 147 signed-in volunteers.
Ward Three’s eight sites included Busby Park, Clearview Park and area, Dunvegan Park and Ardleigh Park, Gairloch Gardens, Lakeside Park and Oakville Museum, Maple Grove Park and trails, Oakville Curling Rink and Perkins Passage (which included Post Park, Maple Valley Park and the Cornwall Sports Park). 178 volunteers pitched-in at Ward Three.
Ward Four hosted fifteen Clean Up sites including Arbourview Trail Park, Bloomfield Park, Castlebrook Park, Fourth Line at Upper Middle Road, Glen Abbey Trail, Glen Oak Creek Trail North, Heritage Way Park, Langtry Park, Millstone Park, Nottinghill Park, Ravine at Third Line and Upper Middle Road, Sandpiper Road at Pheasant Lane, Sixteen Hollow Park, Stratus Parkette, Westoak Trails Park and Woodgate Woods. Here, 300 volunteers lent a hand.
Ward Five had nine sites with 149 volunteers including Harman Gate Park, Martindale Park, Memorial Park, Memorial Park Playground, Munns Creek Park and Margot Street Park, Neyagawa Park, Oxford Park, River Glen Park, Sixth Line and Glenashton Drive and the Sheridan College trails beginning at Treetop Estates.
227 volunteers pitched-in at ten sites in Ward Six including Algrove Park, Bayshire Woods Park, Forest Glade Walkway, Glenashton Drive Bridge and ravines, Glenashton Park and Iroquois Ridge Community Centre, Iroquois Shoreline Woods, Litchfield Park, Pinery Park, The Brownstones and Valleybrook Park.
And in Ward Seven in north Oakville, there were eight sites, up from just four in 2022, including Buttonbush Woods Park, Fowley Park, George Savage Park, Gladeside Pond, Isaac Park, Lions Valley Park, Palermo Park and William Rose Park. A total of 140 volunteers registered to help out.
Tens of thousands of Oakville residents and students have participated in this annual environmental event over the past three plus decades.
Students pitch-in to make a big difference for the local natural environment
237 High School students earned volunteer hours by pitching-in including environmentally-minded students from Appleby College, Abbey Park, Blakelock, Ecole Ste. Trinite, Gaetan Gervais, Garth Webb, Holy Trinity, Iroquois Ridge, Loyola, Oakville Trafalgar, St. Thomas Aquinas and White Oaks as well as Clarkson SS, Lynn Rose College, King’s Collegiate, MacLachlan College, Mentor College and Toronto District Christian School.
174 elementary school students from fourteen schools attended including from EJ James, Eastview, Emily Carr, Forest Trail, Heritage Glen, home schooled, Joshua Creek, Maple Grove, Our Lady of Peace, Palermo, St. Bernadette, St. Marie, Sunningdale and Westoak.
The five goals of the Clean Up campaign
The campaign is succeeding in reaching its five goals of promoting awareness and respect for nature and Oakville’s many waterways, beautifying local neighbourhoods, building community through environmental activism, protecting wildlife and increasing awareness of the need to protect biodiversity in Oakville.
The oakvillepeacecentre.org website features the list of Clean Up sites and long-time Event Sponsors. It will also feature a gallery of photographs taken by Site Coordinators this spring.
This event has been organized since 1992 by the Oakville Community Centre for Peace, Ecology and Human Rights, an incorporated, not-for-profit social movement organization.
Please contact the organizers to volunteer and/or donate. Thank you very much!
