By Brenda Duke

Things have been busy in GALA for the past few months. So busy that we haven’t even had time to do a paper so let’s catch up!

GALA starts each year with our Annual Bunny Hop and after 10 years, The Easter Bunny did not disappoint. On March 30, 2024, almost 200 children and their families joined us at Powell Park for fun, games and food. Joining him this year Officer Tags from Animal Control came along decked out in his bunny gear. Both were a big hit.

The children enjoyed a scavenger hunt and each treasure they found earned them a treat, a game or a prize. They filled up on pizza from Macy’s Food Mart, juice and cupcakes. Grownups got to fill their tummies too and take home a Dinner on Us Package!

We want to thank our sponsors who contributed to the success of our event with product or prizes: Barton Lettuce, River Trading, Hendrys Barber Shop and Nicole and Vida Cormier who donated the candy. We received in-kind and cash donations from some of our supporters and as always funding was provided by Neighbourhood Development and Rotary/Wever Core.

I have to personally thank the organizing committee who stepped up and made sure it all came together: Emily, Adalia, Katherine, Janice, Jenn, John, Laurie, and Gary. Volunteers from the ever faithful Keith Hub and students who joined in completed the activities and helped from start to finish.

 

Keeping Hamilton Clean and Green

After all the fun, GALA’s Beautiful Alleys Team got busy cleaning up across the City and on the Mountain. They’ve been doing their Annual Spring Cleanup each Earth Day weekend for over 10 years. This spring, close to 400 volunteers from six neighbourhoods, three schools; St Patrick Catholic Elementary, St. Ann’s Catholic Elementary and Cathedral Secondary School worked their magic before and after the weekend. We saw volunteer groups from Home Depot on the Mountain, First Ontario Blue Wave, L’Arche and Ulteig Engineering join in to do their part.

Team Up to Clean Up provided us with over 1000 bags and gloves to make sure we had supplies for the volunteers that day and afterwards so they could continue taking care of their city. The City’s Water Department donated 50 reusable water bottles. In addition to all the bags, we filled two disposal bins provided by FastBins and paid for by MetroLinx and the Barton Village BIA. . Each area hosted a follow up thank you with refreshments. The bin at Wentworth collected over 4000 pounds of garbage and Powell Park filled up with over 3000 pounds. That’s over 7000 pounds of garbage off our streets and out of our parks and alleys.

It is extremely encouraging to see our residents come together to Keep Hamilton Clean and Green! Thank you all, this wouldn’t happen without you!

 

2024 Butt Blitz        

A Greener Future knows that coffee cups and candy wrappers aren’t the only litter that covers our streets and harms the environment.  Cigarette butts are a regular sight in parking lots, park benches and along the streets. That includes: extinguished cigarettes, filters, rolling papers, ash, outer plastic packaging, and inner foil packaging.

They have mobilized hundreds of volunteers across the country to pick up thousands of butts that end up in our water systems. During the Butt Blitz, volunteers from across Canada pick up cigarette butts in their local communities, then send them to TerraCycle Canada for recycling. They hope to prevent future littering by raising awareness of the negative impacts that cigarette butt litter has on ecosystems and health. These efforts have resulted in 4,106,302 litres of water saved from contamination and 1,810.1 pounds of plastic waste diverted from the environment

Barton Village BIA, Green Venture and Beautiful Alleys joined forces on Friday April 26th to do their part along the Barton Street Corridor. Armed with protective gloves, buckets and pickers, our 12 volunteers contributed 10, 270 butts to the cause. Contact A Greener Future at nicole@agreenerfuture.ca to find out how you can help all the time.