A new group aiming to help keep Guelph's green spaces cleaner is coming soon to a park near you.
Sunday Park Pick Ups is a new litter program which aims to encourage children to get together once a month to help clean up a park. Children who join the program will be given a free cape and mask to wear while picking up trash. Kids will use these capes to collect badges from all park cleanups they participate in.
“Every time the child comes back, we will have a new patch for them to accumulate, either to sew or iron on,” said Lindsey Oman, who came up with the event.
Oman said she had been wanting to run a program like this for a while.
“I’ve always had this close to my heart. When I would walk with my mom when I was younger, I would say, ‘We should come here and just pick up garbage and bring a bag and we walk through.' So when I had this store open (Oman is owner of the Refill Bar), I made it a point that I wanted to do something like that where I show up and take action.
“I just thought it would be a fun thing to have eco-heroes in the making for the kids and to just get them involved, and teach them young that we just need to take care of it (the environment) and why it’s so important.”
On April 24, the group will meet at Deerpath Park at 810 Paisley Rd. between 10 a.m. to noon. Along with capes, participants will also receive gloves and supplies to help clean up litter.
Oman adds there will also be cookies available for purchase from a small business, with 50 per cent of proceeds going to a local charity. Residents are also encouraged to bring a reusable mug as there will also be coffee.
For more details about the event, click here.
Aiming to run the program every last Sunday of the month, Oman said families are more than welcome to attend as well.
“People get pretty excited when I talk about it. With it being the first one, I hope some people will show,” said Oman. “I think it will be just fun and it will grow every week,”
“Have some coffee, maybe buy a cookie, clean up some garbage, what a good way to start the day, right?”
