Fredericton – On April 22nd, runners, walkers, and bicyclists weren’t the only ones going down Fredericton’s walking trails. A group of local people supporting Matthew Hayes’ campaign for mayor took to the trails in response to the large amounts of garbage that could be seen.
Monika Stelzl was one of the leaders who helped to organize the trail clean-up. For her the day served two purposes.
“I use the trails, just like a lot of the other professors at STU do. And you can see when they get really messy. So I thought why not use this to help clean-up and show my support.”
With the rain coming down it wasn’t a fun task stated the group, but it was nice to see the difference. They hope to see some changes in the next little while. One of the things they want to see happen is prevention against future littering. Stelzl says that some simple changes could do big things.
“You know right now you don’t see many garbage cans on the trail. If people had the option to throw the stuff in a can I think they’d do it.”
The group hopes to see the trails stay clean. But without an effort to keep them that way, they fear that soon the paths will be filled again.