Gold-y Fish Activity At The Cop-Land Park

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 00:57:30 +0000

One questionable activity at the Copland Park wasn’t enough to write about, but two – I definitely have to mention it. We have been regularly visiting this playground at the Copland Park because of the Wonderland-like slide – the double turn slide. Not to mention the trail between Aurora Heights Drive and Orchard Heights.

Let me go back to the Victoria Day weekend. We came to the park day after the Victoria Day. It was striking to see how bad the park looked with all the accumulated fireworks garbage. Town of Aurora parks and recreation worker was on the site cleaning up. As always we had fun despite the mess.

As we were leaving, strangely enough a man in a van pulled over and came to the park. He was looking for something around the garbage area. Nothing was found. The man left empty handed.

Copland Park, Aurora

Last weekend we or rather our Matthew decided on the Copland Park again. He just loves the double turn slide. When we arrived, already playing on the playground was a father and grandfather with a little boy and a girl. I mentioned to my husband, I guess on the playgrounds in general, weekends are father days and weekdays are mother days.

However, when we arrived there was someone else – a man walking around with the metal detector. He was looking for something – not hard to guess that he was looking for metal based products. He too left empty handed unless he found something before our arrival.

Copland Park, Aurora

So how wacky is that? Someone please tell me that we have a gold mine at the Copland Park in Aurora.

And now if you want to see something funny, here is priceless photo taken by Peter from Aurora – yes for real, the squirrel is really eating a cheese sandwich.

Mayor’s Anti-Litter Day Event Great Event, Short On Innovation

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 04:00:09 +0000

It all started with the reminding announcement I heard on the radio yesterday while driving home. The announcer sounded rather sarcastic than encouraging the Aurora Mayor’s Anti-Litter Day participation.

Today was the Mayor’s Anti-Litter Day and I don’t even know where to begin – I have so many thoughts.

Pitch-In

Let’s start with the positive side of the anti-litter day event. Any type of awareness is good for the community. Its good for the environment and its good for our children as they are our future and we need to teach them good environmental habits.

Congratulations to all who participated in today’s event.

Waiting

The Town of Aurora announced this event on their site and concluded with this statement: ‘Last year, Aurorans collected 1.94 tonnes (1940 kilograms) of litter and we are looking to collect even more in 2012.‘

Is more better you may ask yourself? I asked my husband the same question after the event not seeing the above statement yet. I stated – ‘I hope that this year during this event less garbage will be collected.‘

Hopefully They Are Asking The Same Question?

Collecting less and less litter during this day event is a positive outcome and it means that the Mayor’s Anti-Litter Day awareness is working. It was rather disappointing to read that the Town of Aurora was looking forward to collect more litter in 2012.

I know, I know, I am picking on something probably very insignificant and I am sure that whoever wrote this note did not mean for us to interpret that way. I am sure they meant that more volunteers will come out and help to clean up our town. More of us out, more garbage collected.

Take Pride In Our Parks & Do Not Litter

Then another question popped in my head later on – are we innovative?

I admit, I did not participate in collecting garbage today (I got my reasons) but we did come to the Town Park to enjoy the activities with Matthew just before lunch. Park was still preparing for the celebration – food and fun activities for volunteers and families. We had an opportunity to enjoy few things without waiting in long lines.

We had other obligations, so we left before volunteers arrived for the celebration.

Recyclable Drinks

Yes, innovation came to my mind when I saw blue recycle boxes full of drinks in cans and plastic bottles. So how innovative is that? Volunteers spend three hours collecting garbage around the town and then we come to the town park to generate more garbage. I just find this ironic.

I am sure anti-littering day event is not only to tell littering people not to litter, but bring up the complete environmental awareness how bad to the environment is the littering concept.

Hopefully Others Will Say The Same Thing

So here is what I have to say. We have to be more innovative. Repeating same thing over and over again does not make things greener. We need to think about solutions that work. We need to educate children to develop good habits.

Thinking?

Last year about 2000 kg of litter was collected. If I recall last year’s event, I have seen some interesting items piled up in the pick up areas. I think if you reuse what was collected you could easily assemble living space for a one person.

The good news is that we did not have such things this year, at least in the area where I live. But if we collect about the same weight of litter, then that means we collected more of light garbage.

We Cannot Just Have Fun

How can we reduce littering? Not so fast, first we need to identify source of littering. Probably the biggest litter comes from blue boxes that are filled to the top on the windy day. Second source comes from people who litter.

Fishing For Ideas For Next Year?

Our blue box broke. The garbage man is to blame. Town will replace your blue box with a new one. All you need to do is to bring broken one for a worthwhile exchange. We did and we got not just brand new box but taller one. We did not have chance to use it yet as we continue to have technical difficulties filling up the smaller blue box.

Hint, put three inch mark inside the blue box from the top that shows recommended fill up height and develop habit to never pass that mark.

Put This Year Behind & Let Us Be More Innovative Next Year

Perhaps in years to come the Mayor’s Anti-Litter day will be more strategic and innovative. I am hoping to see less litter on the ground, less litter collected and less litter generated as a result of this awareness.

Lastly, lets hope that next year I will also capture some innovative ideas on photos because this year was just like last year.

Town Park, Aurora

Living in Aurora, Town of Aurora, Ontario » Garbage

Gold-y Fish Activity At The Cop-Land Park

Mayor’s Anti-Litter Day Event Great Event, Short On Innovation