This summer, we saw firsthand how our garbage affects the wildlife – it was not in the form of a documentary from a far, far away land but in the form of pictures taken by a resident near a New Brighton storm pond. We posted those pictures on our FB account and happily enough, the resident managed to capture the young duck and to remove the Slurpee lid that was stuck around its neck.
This was a sad example of how our improperly disposed garbage harms wildlife here and everywhere. We can all do our part and keep our grounds cleaner, we can all care more and act more towards educating our children and ourselves to build better and cleaner communities. Pointing fingers and waiting for some magic solution when we don’t want to lift a finger won’t solve much for any particular issue.
We started a “Cleaning Our Neighbourhood” program with Dr. Martha Cohen School and this way more garbage will be collected by the students from our parks and paths. We hope this program will have more benefits, starting with cleaning our neighbourhood, continuing with educating the children to properly dispose of the garbage, and also developing the sense of pride for the job they do and for belonging to something bigger than one individual. A big thank you to the teachers who made this possible and who would want to keep it ongoing for years to come.