Despite cold, bluster and rain, citizens gathered to pick up litter around the city on Sunday, April 21 as they participated in this year’s Garbathon.
Organized by various community organizations including SkeenaWild, the City of Terarace, RDKS, TORCA, Progressive Ventures, Special Olympics, and more, the garbathon filled the dumpster stationed at George Little Park with 2,460 kilogrms of collected garbage.
“The folks manning the dumpsters were blown away (at some points literally) by the community response, and the overflowing dumpster,” said Kerry Geisbrecht from the Greater Terrace Beautification Society.
“Even though the weather didn’t exactly cooperate, we still had lots of people participate. Our hope was to make this a bit of an Earth Day celebration in addition to the garbage clean up.”
Various other activites and educational initiatives were also aimed at promoting sustainability and environmental awareness. Children were engaged with interactive Earth Day activities while organizations like Terrace Public Library and Terrace Sustainability Hub provided resources and information to the participants.
Garbage from illegal dumpsites, which would have otherwise ended up in the rivers was also removed. A collabrative effort between SkeenaWild, Kerry and Kenny Geisbrecht, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and BC Conservation Officers resulted in removal of 1,470 kg of waste.
The winners of the prize draws were later posted on the Garbathon Facebook Event page.
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