July 14, 2009
Canadian Companies Doing Their Part
Sierrans Help Keep Calgary Clean
The Sierra Calgary Green Team lent a helping hand for the City of Calgary’s 42nd Annual Pathway & River Clean-Up. This year almost 1,900 volunteers from 74 companies, organizations and groups gathered a staggering 1,300 bags of garbage weighing in at over 11,000 lbs.
We started our day at 8:30 a.m. with a pancake breakfast supplied by the Calgary Stampede at a local arena. The Sierra team was assigned one kilometer of pathway where they collected one bag of recycling and four full bags of garbage, including a sign for a spring cleanup business - how ironic! It was a great time and we were done around noon.
The event started in 1967 after a 12 year-old girl was walking along the Elbow River bank and saw an entire mattress lying in the river. She tried to haul it out on her own but failed, and then wrote a letter to the local newspaper decrying the mess. Since then, thousands of Calgarians have shown their sense of community spirit and pride by volunteering each year in this great cause. It’s not only a good example of how one person’s actions can make a big difference, but also what is possible when a community gathers together to achieve a common goal.
