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Queenston cleanup deemed a success

Queenston residents picked up litter around the village Saturday, collecting almost 30 bags of garbage.
Queenston residents picked up litter around the village Saturday, collecting almost 30 bags of garbage. (Photo by Fred Mercnik)

Established residents and newer ones, young and old, and students from Willowbank: the village’s spectrum was represented at the third annual Queenston Earth Day cleanup. 

Organizer and Queenston resident Adrian Schoot Uiterkamp deems the event a great success. “The most important part is cleaning up the earth, and discouraging littering,” he says, adding, “it’s a social event too.”

Doubling the number of participants over previous years, 29 hale and hardy folks joined the brigade and collected a total of nearly 30 bags of garbage.

Prompted by Schoot Uiterkamp as arranged, employees of the Niagara Parks Commission picked up the bags from five different spots in a timely manner. 

Some of the “treasures” that were collected included five intact wine glasses (“Sadly they were not accompanied by a full bottle of wine,” jokes Schoot Uiterkamp); “our second small pet urn in a row; rusty chairs; the door of a personal safe with the pins removed; a small bag of cannabis, which resulted in a finders, keepers situation; part of a rusty metal hitch on the river’s edge, and a lot of plastic, actually.” 

Lissa Schoot Uiterkamp, Talylor Kulp, and Kristen Nagel find an assortment of garbage along the Niagara River Parkway during the cleanup Saturday to pick up litter around the village
Willowbank students Evan Karl and Sarah Bulman tackled the escarpment bank during Saturday's cleanup.  (Photos by Fred Mercnik)