Time to Retire

FREE to a good home – well-used sign, safety vest, shoes, gloves and bags (will need more).

 

Karin (with Mickey), like the Wawa Goose is a familiar sight welcoming our visitors and residents alike for many years, and both are now retiring.

There comes a time in everybody’s life, where you have to make a decision — and the time for me has come now to step back from picking up other people’s trash.

 

In the beginning, 25 years ago, my purpose and aim was to make my fellow citizens realize how beautiful this country is, especially our area without our sloppy behaviour. What started out on a whim, became a counted on activity over the years. But that was not my intention.

 

The idea of showing the mess, was to encourage people to STOP littering and dumping, as simple as that. But I failed. How else is it that we still haul over 80 bags of trash, plus thousands of plastic bottles, and the same amount of beer cans out of our immediate surroundings?
I was blessed with great, like-minded people and friends over the years and not to forget, good health that allowed me to fulfill that enormous task. Somebody asked me how many bags we had picked up over the years? BAGS? Mountains by now… maybe as big as a ski hill. And as I am writing this, I can see already slurpeeĀ cups, wrappings, and blue, green, and red Timmy cups polluting our turf again.

 

Is it really that difficult to keep the empties in your vehicle? Or carry in your pocket to dispose of in a trash can? What happened to the saying, “leave only your footprints, not your garbage?”. Canada is known worldwide as friendly, kind and generous — but not for its cleanliness — too bad!

My hope is that somebody will carry the torch and fight the littering and dumping problem, because cleaning up is not the solution.

 

Sad, disappointed, but hopeful, Karin

Karin Grundt
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