Editor, The News:
The nice weather has finally arrived and everyone wants to get out and enjoy it.
And so we should.
Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows have a great number of lovely parks, large and small, for our families to enjoy.
When I take my grandson, two-year-old Linden, for our daily walk to the neighborhood parks I always take a garbage bag along.
It started out to be for our garbage – drink containers, banana peels. It has turned out to be a bag to collect the refuse we find along the way – other people’s garbage.
The other day we filled the bag.
Along the street, in the school yard and the Lions Park on Harris Road, we found garbage others had left behind.
Linden usually spots it first. He picks it up and says “oh, oh” as he brings it to me to put in the bag.
What a shame that a two-year-old is more conscious of the need to look after our parks than the folks who are old enough to buy the drinks that seem to leave the majority of the mess.
I told Linden that we were going to try to send a message to people that they should clean up after themselves. He’s just not big enough to pick up more than a bag at a time.
A good summertime reminder: if you bring it – take it away when you leave.
Pam Stec
Pitt Meadows