Innisfil residents are beginning to notice the efforts of the Clean Up Innisfil group of volunteers.
Donning yellow safety vests and carrying yellow pitch-in bags, the group has extended Innisfil’s Pitch-In Day clean up to a year-round program, targeting litter left along roadsides, and even tackling overgrown flowerbeds in Innisfil parks and planters.
On Sunday, they took the effort up another notch, partnering with the Clean-up Barrie Group to tackle litter along Mapleview Drive and Sideroad 20.
A tent at the roadside marked their temporary headquarters, where garbage bags, coffee and Timbits were available to volunteers.
“It’s nice that the two groups are together – doing something together,” said Clean Up Innisfil founder Leslie Pollak. “It’s a good feeling!”
As the volunteers fanned out, they filled bags and pulled construction debris to the roadside, for later pick-up by both Barrie and Innisfil work crews.
Among the more unusual items found: the door of a Port-a-Potty, and a sign advertising a nearby housing development on Mapleview.
Pollak contacted both businesses, to invite them to pick up their debris. “They have to take some responsibility,” he suggested.
He indicated that scrap dealers might also be contacted, regarding the aluminum siding and other scrap metal pulled from the brush – some of it material ripped from homes by the Barrie tornado on July 15. The idea, Pollak said, is to keep as much trash as possible out of landfill.
This is just the start of co-operation between the groups, he said. Their logos have already been combined in a new design, tied together by an ‘infinity’ symbol, and in future both the tent and new road signage will display the group’s logo – letting residents know that the Clean-Up Innisfil Group is out and active again.
And the invitation always stands: more volunteers are welcomed. For more information, visit the Clean Up Innisfil page on Facebook, by clicking here.
The two hour “Clean Up Barrie and Clean Up Innisfil campaign on Sunday was kicked off by Barrie Town Crier Steve Travers, who thanked the volunteers.
“It is you who make a wonderful difference, by cleaning the roadsides. You keep our country Canada looking beautiful… Without your hard work and diligence, uncaring people would be spreading garbage around and making Canada one huge eyesore.
“Therefore you are all local heroes today!”
