The Fort Frances waterfront is looking a little cleaner today, thanks to the efforts of some of the town’s youngest citizens.
Three classes from Robert Moore School spent Thursday morning scouring the riverbank from Crowe Avenue to the Sorting Gap Marina—and came up with an astonishing amount of other people’s leftovers.
Enough, in fact, to fill 10 large garbage bags without even venturing too close to the water’s edge for safety reasons.
The students also stopped to pick up trash as they made their way to the waterfront from the school.
The clean-up was organized by the Rainy River Watershed Program as part of the Great Canadian Shoreline Clean Up, which is based in Vancouver.
And what was the most common form of trash? “Cigarette butts,” said disgusted Grade 7 student Becky Jolicoeur.
Robert Moore educational assistant Debbie Deschamps was not surprised at the findings. “Last year, there were 157,000 cigarette butts picked up across Canada,” she said.
The three classes—Grade 4, Grade 7, and Grade 8—kept a record of what they found and turned it in to Catherine Warren, a project officer with the Rainy River Watershed Program, which is co-ordinating the clean-up.
Warren said the results will be forwarded to Vancouver and added to the national statistics.
Based on the students’ findings, the most common forms of trash they found were—in descending order—butts, food wrappers, plastic bags, foil wrappers from cigarette packs, and picnic wastes.
After completing the job, the students were treated to popsicles before returning to class.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
