Press Releases - City Likes the Environment

A very busy press day coming out of City Hall. Here are two more press releases for upcoming environment-related events in the City of Guelph: a call for volunteers for the tenth annual Clean & Green Community Clean Up on April 20th, and an announcement about how the Royal City is going to mark Canada Water Week 2013.

Check out the press releases and the attached links below:

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

Register by April 12 to participate in this year’s city-wide clean-up

GUELPH, ON – The City of Guelph is looking for volunteers to clean-up Guelph roadways during the tenth annual Clean & Green Community Clean Up taking place Saturday, April 20.

Residents have until Friday, April 12 to register for this year’s Clean and Green Community Clean-up. Volunteers can register by calling the Operations department at 519-837-5628 x 3305 or register online. Clean-up crews will be provided with clean up supplies and all the details they’ll need for safely collecting litter. All volunteers will be invited to attend an appreciation barbecue following the clean-up.

The City of Guelph, together with Tim Hortons, Bag Ladies, Al-Pack, Guelph & Wellington Development Association, Terra View Homes and Guelph Downtown Business Association, is hosting the city-wide clean-up to help fight litter in our community. The clean-up takes place Saturday, April 20 from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Clean-up crews will be picking up litter along roadways and boulevards that have been identified to need spring cleaning.

Litter will be collected in bright colour garbage bags so that passersby can easily see the amount of litter that was strewn throughout the city. More than 900 bags of litter were collected from last year’s clean up.

The Clean & Green Community Clean Up is one of Guelph’s largest community clean up events. Last year, over 5,900 kilograms of garbage was removed from neighbourhood streets, green spaces and community parks, by over 1000 volunteers helping to ensure more enjoyable common spaces.

CANADA WATER WEEK

Guelph, On, March 18, 2013 – Today marks the start of Canada Water Week, a week-long celebration of water focused on the theme of ‘I Love My Water Body: Engaging Communities for Living Waters.’

For this year’s national event, which runs from March 18 to 24, the City’s Water Services department is working with community partners to offer fun and educational events throughout the city focused on the sustainability of Guelph’s water future.

Wednesdays in March and on April 3 the Guelph Public Library is hosting Water Wednesdays—water education for the entire family. Learn about how Guelph gets its drinking water, the water cycle, how to conserve water at home, and the Yellow Fish Road program. For locations and hours, visit the library’s website at library.guelph.on.ca and click on the events calendar.

On March 20, Guelph residents are invited to join Phillip Collins as he delivers a talk on Food and Water. Collins, a landscape architect specializing in organic agriculture and co-founder of Fresh City Farms, will explain how using your backyard to grow your own food can be a rewarding experience. The talk, which is part of the Healthy Landscapes Speaker Series, starts at 7 p.m. at the Victoria Park East Golf Club. Admission is free.

Then on Saturday, March 23 the City is partnering with the University of Guelph’s School of Engineering and the Ontario Centres of Excellence to host the first-ever H2O GO Festival: An engaging celebration of water

The family-friendly event takes place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at City Hall. The day will include interactive educational displays, children’s games and face painting, prizes, water trivia, skating in Market Square (weather permitting), live performances by local performers, and free workshops on greywater reuse, rainwater harvesting and efficient landscaping. At noon, Mayor Karen Farbridge and Anthony Vannelli, Dean of the College of Physical and Engineering Science, are expected to speak at the event. Admission is free. For more information, visit guelph.ca/ourstoconserve.

Throughout the week, the City is also hosting Ideas that Hold Water, an online thought forum to help build a community-driven Guelph Water Ethic—helping to shape a statement of the City’s commitment to local water resource conservation and protection.

This forum, on the City’s Twitter and Facebook pages, will offer an opportunity for community members to contribute words, thoughts, ideas, and philosophies on water throughout the week. An artistic display of the week’s thoughts will be on display at the H2O GO Festival and is open for additional contributions from those in attendance.

About Canada Water Week

Canada Water Week is organized by the Living Lakes Network Canada and Canadian Freshwater Alliance with support from the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation and World Wildlife Fund. To learn more about Canada Water Week and to check out other events happening in Guelph visit canadawaterweek.com.