The Kelowna Geocaching Club is pitching in to preserve the environment that geocachers love to explore.
As part of the official kick-off to Community Clean-Up Month—an ad hoc group of enthusiastic volunteers hit the streets of downtown Rutland for a massive urban spring clean-up blitz, said a Regional District of the Central Okanagan news release.
Ian Hewitt, with the Kelowna Geocaching Club, says the group tries to help out the environment.
“I thought this is great because a lot of people standing around here are actually from the Rutland area. We’ve got one guy here who’s actually come down from Armstrong,” he said.
The event had roughly 30 volunteers who collected trash in the pouring rain, Saturday, April 7.
Waste reduction facilitator Rae Stewart with the regional district says the Community Clean-Up has been part of our community for more than 20 years, with kickoff events staged annually to highlight how easy it is for anyone to take part.
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“The Uptown Rutland Clean Up is a partnership with the Uptown Rutland Business Association (URBA). Business owners, area realtors, coworkers, friends, family- they’ll all be part of the work crew. Whether it’s sweeping sidewalks, picking up litter, busting graffiti, we plan to do a massive spruce up of the area. Volunteers are really the life blood of this event and we celebrate all of them.”
Laurel D’ Andrea, executive director with URBA, says this is the third year they’ve been involved in this communal clean-up, and support from the business and neighboring community is always great.
“We’re inviting people to ‘spring’ into action,” she said.
D’ Andrea says the businesses in the Rutland Towne Centre are proud, so they will be out helping make their area cleaner for people to come and shop and support their businesses. URBA is proud to have community partners Willow Park Shopping Centre and Century 21 Realty Ltd on board again too. Once the clean-up was completed, volunteers enjoyed a chicken-wing and pizza lunch.
To arrange your own Community Clean-Up event, get free litter bags and gloves, and arrange to have the garbage you collect picked up when you’re done; contact the Regional Waste Reduction Office at 250-469-6250 or email recycle@cord.bc.ca.
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