The 17th annual Christina Lake Clean-Up Day event, held May 27, was a great success.
Thirty-seven volunteers showed up on Saturday morning and collected approximately 50 bags of trash around the community. Most of the garbage was collected along the highway, even though a section of the highway had to be missed due to the work being done on the power lines.
“It seems to be getting better,” commented many of the volunteers. “There is less garbage to pick up each year.”
The most common items picked up were cigarette butts, and lots of them. According to cigwaste.org, only one cigarette butt can pollute one liter of water, making it uninhabitable for fish. This could greatly affect the water quality and fish habitat of Christina Lake and the surrounding creeks.
Besides filling bags with broken signage and plastic bits, the volunteers also picked up some unusual items like the remnants of a blown tire, a credit card, a tire rim and a small noose. The many bags of refundable cans and bottles were donated to the Christina Lake Elementary School bottle drive.
At noon, the volunteers and organizers enjoyed a BBQ at the Kimura Rd. Nature Park Kiosk. Afterwards, ten prizes of $100 each, and two pizzas from Portly Pizza were drawn from the names of participants who gave their time and energy to beautify the roadsides of the Christina Lake.
The Christina Lake Stewardship Society would like to thank the many volunteers for participating on the day of the event as well as the many locals that pick up garbage on a daily basis.
A big thank you also goes out to the RDKB Area C director, Grace McGregor for donating $1,500 for expenses and cash prizes, RDKB for covering disposal fees at Christina Lake Waste Transfer Station, Huckleberry Mountain Market for a discount on the BBQ food, Alpine Signs and Graphics for assisting with sign preparation, Portly Penguin Pizza for donating two free pizzas, Alpine Disposal and Recycling for picking up all the garbage bags and Emcon for picking up the large items that could not be taken by Alpine.