It didn't take long to collect a lot of garbage.
Image Credit: FACEBOOK/Upper Room Mission
June 12, 2019 - 6:00 PM
VERNON - It took 21 willing volunteers just one hour to collect 25 garbage bags of trash from the streets of Vernon during their weekly cleanup.
The cleanup organized by the North Okanagan Youth and Family Services Society, Tuesday, June 11, takes place every week and has been running for about three years.
The volunteers meet up at Vernon's Upper Room Mission and are almost exclusively made up by some of Vernon's most vulnerable people.
"This is just another example of how when a community comes together, great things can happen," Upper Room Mission executive director Nicole Makohoniuk said. "Our guests are community members and take great pride in helping where and when they can."
The crew took to the streets and alleyways of downtown Vernon armed with rubber gloves, tongs and sharp disposal box and collected a whole array of trash. From endless coffee cups to discarded fast food containers, cardboard boxes, newspapers, plastics, and even household items. The group also cleaned up discarded drug paraphernalia including needles.
"From the Upper Room Mission guests to the general public to the social service agencies, it is great to see everyone working together to create a safer more inclusive Vernon," Makohoniuk said.
The volunteer cleanup crew went out at 10 a.m. and when they returned at 11 a.m. they'd collected 25 garbage bags full of trash.
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News from © iNFOnews, 2019