Check out how we supported mother Earth in April!
Rotary Events to Support April Earth Month
Over 1 Billion people celebrate Earth Day (April 22) and April as Earth Month with the objective to
protect the planet from things like pollution and deforestation. Rotary has as one of its 7 main causes to
Support the Environment. As part of this Rotary Clubs across Ontario hold the 5 th annual Great Lakes
Watershed Clean up event. Leaside Rotary held 2 events to support the environment.
April 22 nd , 2024
On a beautiful, sunny day about 100 high school students showed up at the Ontario Secondary School
Teacher’s Federation (OSSTF) headquarters off Bermondsey near Eglinton to plant trees and shrubs.
They sure planted trees: from 8 foot high potted poplars to ironwoods and shrubs like dogwood and
raspberry. After they quickly planted about 600, Steve Smith of Urban Forest Associates went and got
another 700 bare root plants and by 2pm those were all planted too. Supporters from East York and
Leaside Rotary cheered them on.
We appreciate the OSSTF encouraging all this planting which will not only beautify this industrial area,
but also soak up more and more carbon over decades to come. There was a great group of students
from Leaside High and they were joined by Vic Park, Porter, Monarch Park.
Rotary supported the bus travel to the site. Urban Forestry had about a dozen staff led by Alex Karney
gently nudging the effort along. Avery Anand and Bob Barnett thank all for a very successful day.
April 30 th , 2024
After a rain-out on Saturday, George Hurst, Avery Anand and Bob Barnett showed up at Serena Gundy
Park, just south of Eglinton with lots of garbage bags. We managed to fill 5 bags with plastic everything
(bags, wrapping, CBD dispensers, lighters, doggy bags, bottles, Styrofoam packing), some paper food
wrappers, a traffic cone, and the inevitable Tim Horton Cups, plastic knives, wooden forks and half a
dozen beer cans worth 10 cents each. The strange part is that we actually had fun. We had a reaching
device which made the picking up through the tree branches a lot easier. Thank you George and Avery!
Leaside Rotary – Passionate about Leaside Since 1941.