QUEENSVILLE, Ontario — The Aurora Bassmasters celebrated Earth Day by cleaning up a road along the Holland River on April 27.
The Ontario B.A.S.S. Nation club has hosted this annual roadside clean-up project since 2007 along the Queensville Side Road near the river, which flows into Lake Simcoe. In total, 12 club members and 14 area residents volunteered to clean up the 2 1/2-mile stretch of road and a shore fishing area of the river.
The volunteers worked 3 1/2 hours and collected 48 bags full of trash along the roadway and five or six more bags at the public fishing area, according to David Meadows, club president. Most of the garbage consisted of plastic water bottles, energy drinks, coffee cups, soda cans and paper.
“I’m extremely pleased and very proud of the effort our members and the other volunteers put in,” Meadows said. “Quite frankly, the sides of the road were a mess before we started … and conditions were extremely difficult for picking up garbage. Snow melt and heavy rainfalls made most of the steep, deep ditches quite full of water, so the garbage had extra weight and all the papers were wet and mushy.”
After the clean-up, the club hosted a free Appreciation Barbecue for all the volunteers and gave prizes donated by community businesses to the participants.
Aurora Bassmasters members who were involved in the project were Meadows, first vice president Bob Kendal, second vice president Carlo Puiatti, secretary Herb Quan, treasurer Kevin Gittens, conservation director Wil Wegman, Des Barnes, Doug Warren, Stan Tstsar, Brad Jamieson, Terry Chomski and Brian Ogden.