Last week nearly 20 Grades 2 to 4 students from Caudle Park Elementary school in Lower Sackville along with their parents and teachers donned their rubber boots and gloves to assist in a stenlog – used to absorb pollutants and block debris from entering the water system - installation and a clean up of ‘their lake’, First Lake.
Residents of Judy Ann Court in Lower Sackville have been trying to create a safe and fun environment for their children to play but haven’t had much luck. In recent years they’ve worked to have new playground equipment installed only to see it vandalized and ultimately burned down. Now the equipment has been replaced but it is located right next to an area of First Lake that isn’t necessarily safe either. As they did with the playground though, these residents are not going to sit around and wait for someone to fix the problem for them, they’re going to do something about it, and this time the clean street team is led by the children themselves.
“We don’t want our street to smell,” said nine year old resident Ben McCugh. “We want it to look nice and not clogged with garbage and alcohol bottles.”
According to Ben’s mother Jill McCugh, the beach wasn’t always like that.
“There was swimming and a street funded dock,” she said. “It was a real beach for our community.”
The children’s involvement came after a lecture given to the students by Walter Scott, their Fish Friends Education Co-ordinator. He spoke about the First Lake Community Remediation Project and when he was finished several students who lived on the Judy Ann Court side of the lake asked how they could help clean up ‘their’ lake.
Larry Bell is CEO of Water Research Associates Inc. and a proponent of the First Lake Community Remediation Project. According to Bell, Scott has managed to instill a sense of environmental awareness to young people at an incredibly young age.
“This is a tremendous experience of environmental stewardship,” said Bell. “At the youngest ages this old scientist has ever observed.”
The eager group had three goals: to clean up the recreational beach, streamside water chemistry tests and install the stenlog. Bell’s Youth Conservation Corp team was in charge of the water chemistry station and the installation. The clean-up was left to the kids.
The day turned out to be a huge success and of the students involved were happy to give up a day of their summer vacation to help clean up for the fish. Nine year old Drew Briand celebrated his birthday in rubber boots and muck. He didn’t mind making the sacrifice and for his birthday wish he wanted to send out this message:
“Can you please stop polluting the lake because we’re trying to clean up so the fish keep coming back,” he said.
For more information on the First Lake Community Remediation Project contact Friends of First Lake Chair Bob Taylor at taylorro@accesswave.ca or Larry Bell, CEO Water Research Associates Inc. at lbell@water-associates.com.
Ask your school for information on Fish Friends.
