Toronto Nature Stewards will lead volunteers for an Earth Day cleanup on April 25 to prepare the Port Union waterfront for spring arrivals like monarch butterflies.
By Kathy Rowe
Community Earth Day partners with Toronto Nature Stewards
On Saturday, April 25, our community will be celebrating Earth Day at three locations. The West Rouge C.C., at 270 Rouge Hills Drive, will host the annual 2nd Highland Creek Scouts Recycling Drive fundraiser beginning at 9 a.m. The Scouts will be collecting your e-waste, scrap metal, beer bottles/cans and clothing until 2 p.m. in a “drive through” fashion. Please, no tires or hazardous waste! Please enter the property from the north and have your car trunks open and ready!
The Port Union C.C., on Lawrence Avenue East, will host a variety of Earth Day activities for all ages. Free compost, courtesy of Councillor Neethan Shan, will be available by 9 a.m. in the parking lot for those with shovels and pails. Free paper shredding will also be taking place from the Iron Mountain truck in the parking lot laneway on the east side of the community centre.
Inside there will be a children’s workshop where kids can build suet birdfeeders. This drop-in workshop begins at 10 a.m. and continues while supplies last. After making a birdfeeder, please visit the children’s craft room at 10 a.m. where kids can create eco-friendly wind chimes and pinecone animals. Also starting at 10 a.m., there will be a mini-repair café set up in one of the rooms for those who wish to bring in an item for repair. Learn all about native plants when you stop by the Butterfly Way table. Other display tables will include: the Toronto Zoo, Friends of the Rouge Watershed, West Rouge Sports and Rec, and The Lions rain barrels and installing a raised herb garden bed. Don’t forget to visit the CCRA table where you can purchase your membership and a Centennial Hoodie! If you get hungry, there will be hotdogs and hamburgers for sale at a nominal cost.
This year, our community clean-up will be happening from 9:30a.m.-11:30a.m. along the waterfront trail. We are partnering with Toronto Nature Stewards who will be leading the trail clean-up and we hope to get a big turn out of volunteers for this worthy task. Everyone is welcome to help make the waterfront trail beautiful and ready for the summer. Students will earn volunteer hours and all volunteers are welcome to a FREE lunch back at the PUCC at noon. Gloves and bags will be provided upon arrival by the washrooms at the foot of Port Union Road. We ask that clean-up volunteers register in advance and get important details by emailing earthday@wrsra.org. This is a rain or shine event.