2007 Site Coordinator Award of Achievement: Winners announced

Site Coordinators are truly an inspirational group. You tirelessly take to the shores each year to remove harmful litter and encourage others to join you. To formally recognize your efforts, we created the Site Coordinator Award of Achievement, an award to highlight those who exemplified the spirit of the TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. 2007 marked the first year for this award, and the nominations we received made for a difficult selection process! Nominations were accepted in two categories, one for school groups and the other for cleanups held within the community. Thank you to everyone who submitted a nomination.

And the winners are…

School Group: Lianne Jones of Calgary Alberta!

Comunity Based: A tie! Sherril Berg of Coquitlam British Columbia & Gisela Bach of Scarborough Ontario!

And now a bit about these three Site Coordinators…

Lianne Jones: In her first year as a Site Coordinator, teacher Lianne Jones of Westmount School led a cleanup of 127 participants at Kinsmen Lake in Strathmore Alberta. Her cleanup was a great success, and Lianne set a terrific example for all who came out to lend a hand. Off the shorelines, Lianne remains a hero of the environment. Family member Richard Jones writes, “She is a wonderful example to myself and our four children of someone who protects the environment and makes a difference in taking care of our planet for future generations.” . She not only created the school’s volunteer environmental “Green Team” club, but has also organized the school’s involvement with the Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation’s (ABCRC) recycling program. She works on many school initiatives, such as include “Trashless Tuesday” lunches, “Swish and Squish” milk carton recycling, and the “Walkin and Wheelin Wednesday” program that encourages people visiting the school to leave their cars at home. She is truly an inspiration to her students, their parents, and the teachers of Westmount School. Lianne is already planning to take part again next year, and will be encouraging more classes and community members to come and help clean the shorelines. Congratulations Lianne!

Sherrill Berg: Over the past five years, Sherrill Berg of Eagle Mountain District Girl Guides has been coordinating a series of well prepared and engaging cleanups for her guides. This year, a group of 70 eager guides headed to Town Centre Park in Coquitlam to clean up Lafarge Lake. Sherrill has been involved with the Guiding community for the past 8 years, and always leaves a lasting impression with the girls, who speak highly of their cleanup experiences weeks after it has ended. Her enthusiasm and clear commitment to shoreline cleanups creates a fun and enjoyable event that leaves everyone feeling wonderful about the good they have done for the environment. During the remainder of the year, Sherrill continues to set an outstanding example for her guides by integrating important waste reduction measures into their programs. Not only is Sherrill significantly involved with Girl Guides, but she remains an active member of her community by volunteering for groups such as the Port Moody Train Association, and local Hospice. Fellow Girl Guide Leader Corinne Riou-Green writes, “Her enthusiasm is contagious and brings joy to us all. To her all this work she does is normal for a volunteer. She gives her time freely, and always makes us feel good for what we do.”. Thank you Sherrill, for all that YOU do!

Gisela Bach: Over the past four years, Scarborough resident Gisela Bach has been instrumental in organizing and promoting the TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup at Guildwood Park and its surrounding shorelines. This year was no exception, and Gisela took on the task of organizing cleanups at two locations. Her cleanups were well attended by numerous groups, which included local residents and over 100 students she invited from local schools. After the cleanup, and throughout the year, she continues to encourage neighbours and residents to take responsibility for litter. One litter item in particular has caught Gisela’s attention; abandoned shopping carts. To highlight the predominance of these carts, Gisela maintains her Toronto’s Abused Shopping Carts Blog (http://abandonedshoppingcarts.blogspot.com/). She also maintains a Blog devoted to the Guildwood community (http://guildwood.blogspot.com/), where Gisela treats everyone with her passionate writing and updates about the community she calls home. As a champion of our shorelines and of her community, it is an honour for the TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup to call Gisela a Site Coordinator. Her son, Martin, writes, “Gisela is simply an inspiration. I can not think of anyone else who has so tirelessly and passionately fought for her environment and the preservation of Toronto’s wildlife”. We couldn’t agree more. Congratulations Gisela!

Congratulations again to all of our 2007 winners! Each recipient received a gift package with assorted items from our program partners and sponsors, and we’d like to thank TD Friends of the Environment, the Ocean Conservancy, WWF-Canada, the Environment and Plastics Industry Council, and CAZA members for supporting our 2007 award recipients. Good luck to everyone in 2008!

Online registration has re-opened at www.vanaqua.org/cleanup, and this year’s cleanup runs from Sept 20th – 28th.

Happy New Year!

Another New Year is upon us, and this means that our exclusive online registration for past Site Coordinators will begin on Monday January 7^th and last until the start of February. Registration will then open up to the rest of Canada, so register early to take advantage of this special time to reserve your preferred shoreline.

This year’s cleanup runs from Sept 20 – 28^th.

Since our program began, we have been fortunate in having the support of some terrific groups, and we’d like to pay a special thank-you to our program sponsors and donors for their role in making cleanups possible! Their support allows us to provide the cleanup materials used at your cleanups, and has allowed our program to continue to grow each year.

In particular, we’d like to thank:

• TD Bank Financial Group – financial support and sponsorship of the program
• Environment and Plastics Industry Council (EPIC) – funding and in-kind donations
• DOW Chemical – garbage bag donation for the entire country
• Encorp Pacific – recycling bag donation for British Columbia
• 511 Food Service – glove donation in Ontario
• Watson Gloves – discount on glove purchases for entire country

We look forward to your participation for another successful cleanup year, and to the ongoing support of our sponsors and donors.

Congratulations J. W. Walker School!

 

With their inspiring efforts to make their school a greener place, the staff and students of J. W. Walker School in Fort Frances Ontario were recently honoured with their school board’s monthly Recognition of Excellence Award. In addition to numerous inspiring initiatives, such as implementing a composting and recycling program in their schools, students also participated in this year’s TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup.

We’d like to recognize Angela Petsnick, Site Coordinator for Pithers Point Park, for her leadership and encouragement of staff and students. We’d also like to say a special thank-you to all of the students for their hard work and eagerness to take part in green initiatives. You are an inspiration to everyone. Keep it up!

To read the full story, click here.

We want to hear from YOU! If you have any news to share, let us know and we’ll post it on the Blog! Send a quick e-mail to shorelinecleanup@vanaqua.com, and mention “Blog story” in the subject line.

Today is International Volunteer Day!

All across the globe, volunteers are united in celebration. International Volunteer Day is officially recognized by the United Nations, and the TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup Team would like to express our thanks and gratitude for YOUR help. We are proud of our Site Coordinators and Cleanup Participants, and this September we had an impressive turnout of over 50,000 Canadians. Thank you for your help, hard work, and dedication!

As our thanks, participation certificates are now in the mail for those Site Coordinators who have requested them. If you did not get a chance to request these, please e-mail shorelinecleanup@vanaqua.org to receive an electronic version to share with your cleanup team!

Thanks again, and we’ll see you back on the shorelines next year!

Thank-You, Thank-you, Thank-You!

We’re busy here at shoreline cleanup headquarters! This is thanks to all of the important cleanup data we have received from each of you. We will be compiling this information over the next few months and summarizing these results into our Final Report, which will be available online in the New Year.

While you wait for the results, here are some fun facts on the data submitted to date:

• Total weight of litter collected is heavier than 70 Beluga Whales!
• Height of plastic beverage bottles collected is 12 ½ times height of the CN Tower!

Participation Certificates will be mailed out to Site Coordinators who requested these when filling out their evaluation form. These have just been sent to the printers, and we expect to start mailing them out towards the end of November. Thank you for your patience!

It’s not too late!

Thank you to everyone for our biggest cleanup yet! Over 50,000 Canadians registered to clean over 1200 shorelines this September. While we are happy to report that data is rolling in from across the country, don’t forget to send yours in if you haven’t done so already, it’s not too late! We will be sending your results to our International Partner, the Ocean Conservancy, in November, so make sure everything is back to us as soon as possible.

If you aren’t able to use the online data entry, please place your data cards in the return envelope provided in your supply kit and return these to the Vancouver Aquarium.

To watch our numbers grow, be sure to check out our new online “Litter Ticker”. This tracker is on the main website at www.vanaqua.org/cleanup/home.php and displays the running tallies for some of the most commonly found items. As I write this, our Site Coordinators have reported 148,395 cigarette butts, 58,870 food wrappers, and 15,184 glass bottles!

Great work everyone!

Send us your best pictures yet!

We are a few days into the cleanup week and have already seen a few shots from cleanups completed over the weekend. This year we are updating our photo submission page so that it is easier than ever to send us your best cleanup photos. This new makeover will be ready in time for the end of our cleanup.

What type of photos are we looking for? Photos that showcase you and your group picking up litter! We look for photos we can use on our web site, in our publications and on promotional materials. Want to know more? We have created a PDF for you and your Cleanup Photographer! It will be uploaded to the “Resource” section of your online account before the end of the cleanup week, but if you’d like to have a copy of this beforehand, send us a quick e-mail.

Happy cleaning and happy picture taking!

Update on Supplies

As I post this update, we just hit 1000 cleanups nationwide! That really is fantastic. We just wanted to update everyone on the supply kit mailouts, as many of you are eager to go through them. We are still in the process of mailing these out on a weekly basis, and materials will arrive before your scheduled cleanup date. If you would like to check up on your package, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

In the meantime, all of the printed resources from your supply kit can also be viewed online from the “Resources tab” in your online cleanup account. You can even download and read the updated Site Coordinator Manual.

Lastly, as you plan for your event, remember to drop by your cleanup location before the event so that you are fully familiar with the shoreline.

Have fun on the shorelines!

We love our Site Coordinators!

Every Site Coordinator should be proud of the important contribution they are making to shoreline health. Your dedication to shoreline cleanups and the commitment you show year after year is something we are very thankful for. We really can’t say it enough.

New this year, we are introducing our Site Coordinator Award of Achievement to honour those stand-out individuals who exemplify what it means to be a Site Coordinator. This very special award will be given to two individuals each year according to the following categories:

1. School Group – for cleanups led by an educational facility
2. Community Based – for cleanups led by any other type of participating group (this means any type of cleanup that isn’t organized by a school group)
   

Award recipients will receive a special gift package, as well as recognition on the website and in our final report. If you’d like to nominate someone for this award, please fill out the nomination form located in the new award section at www.vanaqua.org/cleanup/awards.php. (Cette page Web sera disponible en français la semaine prochaine.)

Please be sure to submit all nominations before the deadline of Oct 1st, 2007 in order to be considered. You can even nominate yourself!!

We look forward to reading about all of the outstanding examples of Site Coordinators across Canada, and wish you all the best with this year’s cleanups!

Shoreline Cleanups on Facebook

Are you on Facebook? Facebook is a social utility that lets people connect with their friends, family, and co-workers. This is a great way to publicize your own cleanup, and we’ve noticed that there are quite a few Site Coordinators who have already made use of this to reach out to their friends.

Here are some tips to successfully promote your cleanup on Facebook.

• Provide a direct link to your cleanup location so they can register (see below)
• Link back to our main website: www.vanaqua.org/cleanup
• Provide background about why the cleanup happens and the important data they are collecting
• Let them know that their participation is on an International scale
• List some of the unusual finds we’ve had over the years. Unusual items have ranged from false teeth, to potato guns, to even a lost 18 karat gold ring!

If you want to link your friends directly to the registration page for your cleanup, please follow these five easy steps

1. go to www.vanaqua.org/cleanup/searchregister.php
2. Using the drop-down list on the left (text-based registration), click on your province, then region then city.
3. Locate your site
4. Under the heading “Map”, right click on “click here” and select “copy link location”
5. Paste this link on your Facebook event site.

Have a fantastic cleanup!