Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Community Beach Cleanup '15

Breakfast / Briefing
Saturday, September 12 felt like the previous Saturday with overcast clouds, but there were no strong winds.  The staff & cadets of 3045 Army Cadet Corps would be able to complete its community service requirement by cleaning up the shoreline behind the airport.  (The event was originally scheduled for September 5th, but had to be postponed due to bad weather).  Performing community service in cadets fits into citizenship training. 

The corps took on this project two years ago and it’s very likely that we will be revisiting that area for many years to come.  The shoreline I speak of is located about 8km south of Arctic Bay and it becomes littered with garbage of all sorts during the summer.  When the ice in the bay melts, any garbage or loose items that have been left there are carried by the current to that southern shoreline.  It makes the area unattractive and dangerous for arctic wildlife.  That area is a bird sanctuary.

The staff and cadets assembled at the Uquutaq Centre (Anglican church) in the early morning for breakfast and a briefing.  I arrived wearing my cadpat combat attire – I was representing the Canadian Armed Forces.  Everyone was fed delicious egg muffins with ham & juice boxes.  The briefing was short & to the point – “We’re going!”  The cadets piled into the back of a pickup truck and were driven to the airport.  Another pickup truck was used to bring garbage bags, a tent, and lunch meals.  Two atvs with attached trailers were also brought along to assist in collecting all the filled garbage bags and any large items (wood, bicycles, rubber tires, etc).
            

Two senior cadets transported most of the cadets, meals, and necessary equipment to the shoreline using the atvs and trailers.  I was with the group that chose to walk around the airport towards the shoreline.  Upon arrival, the cadets unloaded all the supplies and set up the white McPherson tent.  When the tent was pitched, a cadet was placed in charge of boiling water on a Coleman stove so that everyone could mix it with hot chocolate powder in a mug. 
            

The cadets were divided into two groups.  One group was given the shoreline heading towards Arctic Bay, and the other group was assigned the southern shoreline.  Garbage bags, as well as gloves, were handed out.  I led the first group.  The commanding officer of the cadet corps would roam between the groups and the camp site, making sure everyone was working. 
            

I watched where I stepped because I didn’t want to dirty my uniform.  There is a lot of seaweed along the shoreline and it does smell in certain places.  It always amazes me to see how much garbage is found in this area, from small pop cans to large rubber tires.  Even wood from sealift crates wash up on shore.  We picked up so many different things that day.  Toys, tricycles, shirts, shoes, chip bags, Rubbermaid containers, plastic bags, plastic food containers, motor oil bottles, soccer balls, the list goes on.  It was really helpful when the sun came out from behind the clouds because the sunlight reflected off all the plastic wrappers on the ground.  We collected enough pieces of wood for a very large bonfire. 
            


Loading the ATV.
The shoreline began to look cleaner and “greener” after several hours of hard work.  The atv drivers were kept busy, driving between groups, picking up garbage bags and wood, and driving them back to the staging area.  The discarded wood pieces were piled up in one spot while the garbage bags were loaded onto the pickup trucks.      
            

Staging Area
Lunch time!
We gave the cadets a hot chocolate break and a lunch break.  The lunch meals were American-made Meals-Ready-to-Eat (MREs).  The meals come packaged in aluminum pouches inside cardboard boxes.  The main courses need to be removed from the boxes and cooked in hot water.  MREs aren’t as good as the Canadian-made Individual Meal Packages (IMPs) but they’ll satisfy your hunger for some time. 
            
A cleaner shoreline.
(Photo taken by Clare Kines).
We finished cleaning up the area at around 3pm.  Unfortunately, there was still plenty of garbage along the shoreline towards Arctic Bay but we were all tired.  That area would have to be cleaned on another day.  We posed for photographs in front of the large wood pile we created.  Everyone agreed that there would be plenty of wood to burn during the weekend Field Training Exercise (more on this in a future post).  The commanding officer debriefed the cadets on a job well done and spoke about the reasoning behind their community service. 

Debriefing
I can't believe we found an abandoned qamutik.
The tent was taken down and was packed into a trailer, along with other materials.  Several cadets hopped on the back of trailer and were driven back to the pickup trucks, while others walked back.  Those walking back had to navigate around large mud puddles.  Everyone was home by 4pm.


Staff & volunteers. (Photo taken by Clare Kines).
The beach cleanup was a success and the shoreline was clean for another year.  It would be nice if that area didn’t become littered with garbage every year, but as long as the community suffers from a lack of will to keep garbage off the ground, this will always be the outcome.  (Littering, as we all know, is a problem everywhere in the world.  Turning a blind eye won’t make the problem go away).           
     
Arctic Bay. September 12, 2015

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