Thousands help clean riverbanks, pathways

The City of Calgary’s Julie Guimond with some of the more unusual finds: a hand-built model boat and a piece of white crystal judged the most unusual during the annual pathway and river cleanup on Sunday.

Photograph by: Gavin Young, Calgary Herald

Thousands help clean riverbanks, pathways

By Clara Ho

Calgary Herald

May 7, 2012

CALGARY — A brown and black faux-fur throw, a set of three glass casserole dishes, and an auburn-tressed wig entangled with a brush and horseshoe were among the stranger items plucked from the riverbanks and pathways on Sunday.

But a hand-built, wooden toy boat painted white and brown — along with a pair of white crystals found nearby — took top prize for “best find” at the 45th annual Pathway and River Cleanup.

“The Erlton Community Association helped find the boat. It’s kind of falling apart. It’s missing some of its parts,” said Julie Guimond, an education and facility supervisor with the city’s parks department.

The annual event brought together approximately 2,000 volunteers from 84 groups — ranging from corporations to members of the public — who combed about 200 kilometres of paths along the Bow and Elbow Rivers, Nose Creek and the Glenmore Reservoir armed with garbage bags and gloves.

“It’s really just an educational piece to get the message out on how much waste we do have and to give those volunteers an ability to engage in the community, to have some pride and ownership of those parks and to be able to make them as beautiful as we’d like them to be,” Guimond said.

One of the highlights of the day was the presentation of the best finds at the parking lot of Inglewood Wildlands Park, with the most interesting item earning the finders $500 of environmental education from the parks department.

The boat may have garnered the most excitement from the judges, but it wasn’t the only discovery that got tongues wagging. A dried out Christmas tree attached to a yellow inner tube raised some eyebrows, while a blender with its lid and all the buttons intact had some wondering aloud if the appliance was still functional.

A geocache discovered in the Bowmont Park area, which is meant to be discovered and requests that the finder sign his or her name on an attached scroll, will be returned to where it was located.

Adrianna Burwash, 15, and sisters Shaylyn Vanderkruk, 14, and Kira Vanderkruk, 17, wrinkled their noses as they dropped off what appeared to be a dead porcupine, which they found in the Harvest Hills area.

“I hadn’t seen a porcupine in a long time,” said Burwash, shortly after entering into the best find contest. “It smelled bad.”

This was the second year the trio took part in the annual event. The Vanderkruk sisters said their mother works for the city and encouraged them to volunteer.

“We like helping the community,” Shaylyn said.

Burwash said it was disappointing to see the amount of garbage nestled around the city.

“People need to start cleaning up after themselves,” added Kira.

Ideally, the city wouldn’t need to hold such an event in the future and litterbugs would get the message that their actions are hurting the environment, Guimond said.

“Eventually, we’ll reach a point where we don’t have to clean up because we aren’t creating litter,” she said.

There’s no word yet on how much was collected in this year’s event. About 4,500 kilograms of garbage — not including recyclables — was collected at last year’s cleanup. One of the largest weigh-ins was several years ago, with about 6,300 kilograms collected.

Any cans and bottles will be recycled and the money donated to a local charity. This year, the donations will go to the Calgary Drop-In Centre.

LINK: Calgary Herald