Latest news with #Windsorite
CBC
16-04-2025
- General
- CBC
Meet the teenager bringing Tecumseh together to pick up trash
Social Sharing It's time for spring cleaning and Earth Day is right around the corner on April 22. A southwestern Ontario town is getting set to mark the occasion in a new way. For the time, Tecumseh seeing a community-wide cleanup that will see volunteers fanning out with garbage bags this weekend. On Saturday, they'll be along Tecumseh Road and Manning Road collecting litter in hopes of making the town look a little cleaner. The Optimist Club of St. Clair Beach, the Rotary Club of Windsor Roseland and the Tecumseh Business Improvement Association (BIA) are teaming up — thanks to a local teenager. Maude Drake, 17, pitched the project the idea and has been a driving force in bringing it to life. Drake spoke with CBC Radio's Windsor Morning host Amy Dodge about her brainchild. Here's a portion of that conversation. What inspired you to come up with this idea for Earth? Ever since I was young, I've always been very passionate about the environment and protecting it. I would look up on YouTube little ways to become zero waste and urge my friends to never litter. It would always make me so mad. I put together a proposal for a town cleanup to see if they were interested and luckily both clubs decided to come together for this project. How did it feel to pitch your idea in front of all those adults? It was nerve-wracking. I made a presentation and worked on it for a long time to make sure everything was perfect and I was just eager to promote a town clean up because I think it's important that we have pride in our community and that we take care of the earth that's ours. There's only one, and that's often overlooked, I feel. Meet Maude Drake — the teen who's spearheaded a community-wide cleanup in Tecumseh 3 hours ago Duration 1:36 What kind of reaction did you get from people after your presentation? It was a very good reaction. They honestly were all excited to bring it to life. I think especially after winter when all of the snow melts, people really start to realize the amount of litter around the town. What will the cleanup look like on Saturday? On Saturday, April 19 at 10 a.m., we're meeting at the garden centre at Zehrs on Manning Road and volunteers will be given garbage bags and things to pick up litter — and they'll be assigned zones. Hopefully by noon we'll have Tecumseh looking a lot cleaner. Why does this kind of community cleanup matter to you personally? I've always just loved the environment and those documentaries about … planet Earth have always interested me so much. I find that environmental issues are overlooked, especially when talking about politics that I hear my parents or older people talking about. WATCH | Spring melt means dog poop, and this Windsorite is cleaning it up: Spring melt means dog poop, and this Windsorite is cleaning it up 20 days ago Duration 1:40 It's the younger generations like me that are going to be the most affected by these issues. I think it's important that we make environmental protection something that we instill in our community now so that it's longer lasting and it becomes the new norm. Instead of … all of these plastic wrappers and bags that people bring to stores … bring your reusable bags and protect the environment. If we ruin this earth, we don't have anywhere else to go. Is there anything else that you look at in our daily life that you think you'd like to change for your generation? Yeah, I think especially after COVID — once that happened — the idea of reducing waste kind of became something that people didn't think about anymore. All of the PPE, we were really pushing to protect ourselves and it made us forget about the environment around us. I think even switching to metal water bottles or reusable bags at stores, just small changes will really help. Proper recycling too. I urge people around the community, even if you can't come out on Saturday to pick up litter when you go on a walk or if you're on the side of the road and you see something, because then we won't even need a town cleanup. Do you see this becoming an annual event in to come? I really hope so, especially with the support of both the optimist club and the rotary and the Tecumseh BIA. Having all of these together makes it a bigger thing to promote. I want to bring in Windsor. So maybe next year bring in Windsor-Essex or Chatham so we can clean up Windsor and Essex County as a whole. What do you hope people take away from participating? I hope people just remember that this earth is just ours and it's the only place we have to live. I think it's important to take care of our home and make sure that we bring the cleanup back into our lives.
CBC
19-02-2025
- General
- CBC
Workshop tackles the questions you have — but don't know who to ask — about homelessness in Windsor
A workshop will be held Wednesday evening to help give Windsor residents the necessary tools on how to interact with people experiencing homelessness. Organized by the Downtown Windsor Community Collaborative (DWCC), the workshop will be held at the Windsor Media Arts Community Centre at 664 Victoria Avenue from 5 to 7 p.m. Bob Cameron, DWCC executive director, said the workshop — titled Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Homelessness But Didn't Know Who to Ask — will discuss the right way to engage someone on the streets and how to interact with them. "We want to address concerns like relieving fear, but definitely relieving the stigma that's often attached with being on the streets," Cameron said. Cameron said a DWCC team called Streetlight has spent the last couple of years engaging people on the street with the primary idea of being curious and understanding people's stories. Team members will share "practical tools of what we've learned on how to engage and understand the stories," he said. Additionally, Cameron said about 12 agencies will have speakers at the event, and people will have an opportunity to interact with representatives of Windsor police, the health unit, the Canadian Mental Health Association, among others. You never know what's going on Windsorite John Labutte is experiencing homelessness. Asked what he wants people to know, he says you never really know what's going on with someone else. "People are always worried about their own stuff, you know, holding on to something like a bag for an example, because it could have something really important to them. But there are people that would assume, 'oh, there's dope in there.'" Labutte said the bag he carries contains personal effects, like a photograph of family members he can look at from time to time, because he has not seen them in person for a long time. Hope Cameron said one of her biggest needs, especially during the winter month, is to be able to get a warm drink sometimes. "The warm drink and stuff, the soup is really what's healing especially in the winter time, and just having a warm meal … I just wish we had more of that around." 'There are incredible resources out there' Meanwhile, the DWCC executive director said the workshop will also provide attendees with the necessary information on how to refer people. "There are incredible resources out there, but we as a community, as neighbours, most often are unfamiliar with what they are," he said. "So this evening provides an opportunity for us to get the resources so when I meet someone on the street, [if] the question comes up, I know how to at least direct them and begin to develop a relationship, realizing this person is a valued person as much as I am, and relieving my worries or fears of the interaction. "To be able to approach someone and acknowledge their dignity and their humanity just relieves the tension of the uncertainty on both sides of the sidewalk," he added.
