Hey Elphinstoners, is seasonal depression bumming you out? Need some inspiration? A life goal? A new hobby? I’ve got just the thing. An easy way to improve your community, and mood, is by picking up trash around your neighbourhood. Hear me out. Each spring Lee Carter organises the Area E Trash Bash Clean Up, which calls upon neighbours to come out of hiding to help beautify our little slice of the Sunshine Coast, making it a safer, cleaner place to live in. This fantastic annual event can offer unexpected benefits for your mental health, local wildlife and our neighbourhoods at large.
Some reasons to take part:
- Research indicates that walking alleviates anxiety and depression, so get those steps in.
- Help our local bird population to avoid building their nests with plastic and cigarettes.
- Do it for the ‘gram: Post before and after photos, share some weird finds, and lead by example online.
- Get a little endorphin rush with every piece you pick up knowing you’re benefiting both humans and wildlife in your area.
- Hot beverages provided, and volunteers can enter a draw for two tickets to the monthly Bob Ross Paint Night at the Gibsons Legion
- And really, come on, few things are more satisfying than dumping a bag full of trash you just collected.
The annual Community Trash Bash for 2024 in the Elphinstone area will be held this year on Saturday, March 23. We meet in the Cedar Grove Elementary School parking lot located at 1196 Chaster Road. There are two shifts available: from 10 a.m. until noon we will be assigned different streets to tackle and tidy. If you’re a late riser, or don’t want to pick up garbage, we’ve got a shift for you, too. From noon until 1:30 p.m., you can help sort our collected treasures and load them into trucks to be recycled or dumped.
Last year in just two hours this event collected 500 pounds of garbage destined for the dump, 200+ beer cans, lots of glass bottles, Styrofoam, car parts, realtor’s signs, a dingy, heaps of plastic, four large motor oil containers and much more, recycling everything possible. That is an incredible amount of trash, but Lee needs more help this year or she will not be organising it again next year. If everyone takes a short shift, it lightens the load.
Lee wants to shout out to the people who have pitched in in the past and will pitch in in the future: “I truly appreciate all of the volunteers who have agreed to make our community a tidier one, getting rid of the evidence of the junk people are tossing out of their cars.”
Please wear warm clothes, boots, and gloves. The SCRD will supply the grabbers, bags, traffic vests, and work gloves. And if you know of a street in Area E that needs some love, please shoot Lee an email so she can send people that way on March 23: [email protected]
I would love to hear feedback and take suggestions for topics in Area E. Email me at [email protected].
