On a cool Wednesday morning – remember, the snow, North Bay? – dedicated volunteers convened in downtown Sturgeon Falls to start another season of cleaning.
These stalwart folks are members of the Sturgeon Falls Beautification Group. As the name makes clear, the group’s mission is to keep Sturgeon Falls beautiful. With the purchase and installation of Stella the Sturgeon and Marina the Mermaid, the group has increased the amount of public art in the town.
Also, the murals you see around Sturgeon Falls? The beautification group was behind most of those, and it also installed a few large planters downtown as well.
See: Another mural inspires West Nipissing residents
The morning’s work rang in the seventh season of the group’s weekly downtown cleaning. That’s right, each week group members grab their brooms, trash bags and tools of the cleaning trade to get down to business – cleaning up the town.
“Seven years of volunteering towards keeping our downtown clean, green and beautiful,” enthused group founder, Gayle Primeau, in a social media post Wednesday morning.
She mentioned that no curb was left unswept, all litter was picked up, and the hostas and perennials under the trees on King Street were shown some love. The group then reconvened at the fountain and “gave it a good weeding,” and removed all the dead branches that fell over winter.
Members polished it off with a final sweeping of the area.
See: Grab your garbage bags, Sturgeon Falls residents, it's clean up time
“We are so pleased with the overall cleanliness of our downtown,” Primeau said, emphasizing there was less garbage and cigarette butts lingering about.
Primeau also gave thanks to the “amazing crew” for helping keep it beautiful, including Diane Mekers-Laferriere, Evelyn Knupfer, Louise Theoret Gauthier, and Celine Leblanc. Also on the clean and green crew is Andrée Beaudin-Trottier, Paul Paiement, Brad Rusk and Valerie Buckle-Lariviere.
For more information about the group, or to reach out and lend a hand at the next cleanup, visit the Sturgeon Falls Beautification Group on Facebook.
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
