Category: Spring Cleanup

Every spring there is a Saturday when volunteers go out and clean up the neighbourhood.

Here are the posts about spring cleanups. You can find the current Spring Cleanup information page at https://champlainpark.org/spring-cleanup/

Spring Cleanup 2022 Wrapup

The 2022 Spring Clean Up was once again a great success with nearly 50 participants! Folks had lots of fun collecting trash to keep the neighbourhood clean while chatting with friends and neighbours and enjoying some delicious doughnuts!

We would like to address a heartfelt thank you to every one who contributed by showing up on Saturday morning despite the cool grey day to volunteer, give out gloves and garbage bags and build community spirit. We would also like to thank the Champlain Park Community Association for funding the snacks.

Wishing everyone a happy spring,

Kris, Eirene and Nick

Spring Cleanup 2022 – April 23

Time to limber up and to get ready to stoop, scoop, lunge and squat our way to a cleaner community!

It’s a great way to get some exercise and help make our neighbourhood beautiful at the same time.

When: Saturday April 23rd (in case of rain Saturday April 30th)

Where: meet outside the Champlain Park fieldhouse at 10am and pick up a garbage bag and gloves. We’ll also provide snacks to tide you over!

What: Choose a part of the neighbourhood and pick up any garbage you see and make our neighbourhood clean and beautiful. Dispose of the garbage bag with your normal household garbage/recycling/composting.

For posts about Spring Cleanups, see Category: Spring Cleanup

[Cleanup Poster]
Spring cleanup CPCA.pdf

Spring Cleanup 2022 Coming Soon – April 23

Neighbourhood Spring Clean-Up 2022 is Coming!

Time to limber-up, and to get ready to stoop, scoop, lunge, and squat our way to a cleaner community. What a great way to get some exercise and to help make our neighbourhood beautiful at the same time.

Planning is underway for Champlain Park to host the return of the “Cleaning the Capital Program”.

The date for the event is being planned for April 23rd, with a rain date of April 30th, so mark your calendars!

More details for Champlain Park’s activity will follow in the coming days, but if you want to learn more about the overall program please visit: https://ottawa.ca/en/living-ottawa/environment-conservation-and-climate/community-environmental-and-beautification-programs/cleaning-capital-program#background-information

In the meantime, while we await the return of this community-wide program, everyone is encouraged to do their part, at their own pace, in cleaning-up their piece of our little oasis here in the heart of Ottawa. If you see some trash around your home or on your street, just pick it up and dispose of it in your regularly scheduled garbage collection, or in the public bins.

So stay tuned, and we’ll get you more information soon about our rendition of Ottawa’s “Cleaning the Capital Program”.

Spring Cleanup Results

Andrea Murphy writes on Twitter:
Fruits of the @ChamplainPark spring cleanup today. Thanks to all who helped out. Strangest thing found in the woods was an old leather suitcase.

Actually, if you think about it, that’s likely a civil servant briefcase, possibly accidentally dropped by one of our neighbours from Tunney’s Pasture. It was “grossly mouldy” inside, so no worry about leaked documents.

[2019 Spring Cleanup Results, besides a hockey net, garbage, a leather briefcase was found]

Spring Cleanup 2019

LIFE’S MESSY.

April 27 28 WE CLEAN IT UP.

Champlain Park is looking for volunteers for our annual Spring Cleanup. The snow has gone and debris accumulated over a long winter has started to appear. Now’s the time to get it! Later, spring growth makes us pull out more grass than trash, and we wouldn’t want to do that.

The cleanup, part of the City’s Cleaning the Capital campaign, is a chance for neighbours of all ages – kids, teens, and adults – to get together, say hello, and help spruce up the neighbourhood.

Due to rain on Saturday and fieldhouse scheduling, we’ll meet at the fieldhouse on Sunday, April 28 at 12 noon. Juice, coffee, and cookies will be served. There is a map so that people can choose an area to work on. We’ll wrap up in a couple of hours.

The designated cleanup areas are the south side of Amanda above the transitway; the boulevard on Northwestern and the path at its north end; and along the fence on Patricia and Pontiac and in the Champlain Woods between the fence and the parkway. It also includes the beach area along the river at the foot of Carleton, and any other public spaces you think could use some help.

We recommend wearing pants and long-sleeved shirts, appropriate footwear and gloves. The City will provide garbage bags.

If you have any questions or suggestions, call Andrea Murphy or Ian Reid at 613-715-9504.

For posts about Spring Cleanups, see https://champlainpark.org/category/community-news/spring-cleanup/

Spring Cleanup 2017 – April 29

LIFE’S MESSY.

APRIL 29 WE CLEAN IT UP.

Champlain Park is looking for volunteers for our annual Spring Cleanup. The snow is melting extra fast, and trash accumulated over a long winter has started to appear.

The cleanup, part of the City’s Cleaning the Capital campaign, is a chance for neighbours of all ages – kids, teens, and adults – to get together, say hello, and help spruce up the neighbourhood.

We’ll meet at the fieldhouse on Saturday, April 29 at 10 a.m. Juice, coffee, and cookies will be served. There is a map so that people can choose an area to work on. We’ll wrap up by noon. In case of rain, we’ll meet instead on Sunday, April 30.

The designated cleanup areas are the south side of Premier above the transitway; the boulevard on Northwestern and the path at its north end; and along the fence on Patricia and Pontiac and in the NCC forest between the fence and the parkway. It can also include the area along the river at the foot of Carleton, or any other public spaces you think could use some help.

We recommend wearing pants and long-sleeved shirts, appropriate footwear and gloves. The City will provide garbage bags.

If you have any questions or suggestions, call Andrea Murphy or Ian Reid at 613-715-9504.

Andrea has tweeted a cleanup summary and a rusty treasure photo at https://twitter.com/AndreaMurphy12/status/858409677532606464

Spring Cleanup 2016 Summary

Just following up on the Spring Cleanup…

We had a good turnout this year, about 20 people and families signed in and I heard that a team of around 4 people sponsored by Glad came from Wakefield (saw them leaving at the end in their yellow shirts). Glad also provided the garbage bags, looks like we had about the right amount. The same can’t be said for the home baked cookies, which ran out before the baker could have one!

Andrea and Ian seemed to have everything in hand, even down to fridge magnets from the city’s “Tim Hortons Cleaning the Capital” program, beverages for the volunteers, a campaign map and so on. Thanks for setting it up and staffing mission control!

Signing Up and Getting Supplies
20160423_100156_AS_6587 Signing up

Fridge Magnet
20160423_113749_AS_6606 Cleaning the Capital Fridge Magnet

Sticker
20160423_113726_AS_6604 Cleaning the Capital Sticker

Campaign Map with Post-it™ notes claiming work areas
20160423_112401_AS_6602 Campaign Map

I found lots of candy wrappers, plastic cups, cigarette packs, lighters, cigarette butts, plastic bags, beverage cans, plastic water bottles and such things, mostly near the woods at the school. Weirdly, no glass bottles and just one glass fragment. But I also found a few noteworthy items:

First off, an unusual brass Allen Wrench. Usually they’re silver steel. This was in an area on Pontiac with noticable contractor debris, such as electrical wire insulation strippings.
20160423_101306_AS_6588 A rare Brass Allen Wrench

On the opposite corner of the neighbourhood on Patricia, I found this magnifying glass keychain.
20160423_103437_AS_6589 Magnifying Glass

Getting closer to the school area on Patricia, and the woods, here’s yet another glove. Seems to be designed for cartoon characters, with only four fingers.
20160423_105324_AS_6592 One Glove of Many

A blue golf ball stands out on a sunny day (great weather today for working outside).
20160423_105814_AS_6593 Blue Golf Ball

A piece of tile. Wonder where it came from.
20160423_105938_AS_6594 Tile Fragment

This assortment of garbage is brought to you by the letter O. Made of foam.
20160423_110409_AS_6595 Foam Letter O

Close to a school gate is the remains of a lesson on cooking with mud. The felt marker beside the pot is for taking notes? I left this behind since it didn’t seem to be garbage.
20160423_110504_AS_6596 Lesson on Cooking with Mud

I was surprised to see this bow tie. A closer look reveals that it is a hair ribbon accessory.
20160423_110739_AS_6598 Bow Tie Hair Ribbon

One of the lighters I found. Other people were finding them too.
20160423_111043_AS_6599 Cigaratte Lighter

Another team found an antique car leaf spring in the forest. It seems to have been halved with a cutting torch.
20160423_112448_AS_6603 Car Leaf Spring

Ian Reid with the mysterious, helpful people from planet GLAD (via Wakefield). Photo and description courtesy of Andrea Murphy.
20160423 Ian Reid and Glad Team

The final result of all this work is an even larger pile of garbage. Just think how many candy wrappers are there!
20160423_120457_AS_6610 Our Garbage Pile

Thanks everyone for pitching in and cleaning up.

If you have stories or photos of interesting items, I can add them to this post. Send them to champlainpark@hotmail.ca or tweet them to @ChamplainPark.

– Alex