Community came to clean-up their neighborhood on Earth Day.
The Waterfront Business Improvement Area (BIA) invited members of the community out to help clean up their neighborhood this past Earth Day.
Like every other BIA, the Waterfront affiliate is an association of commercial property owners and tenants at the Queens Quay corridor between Bathurst and Cherry St. Their main mission is to work with city to support business, engage the community, and unify the waterfront area.
Jolene Warner, digital marketing manager at Waterfront BIA, said, “today is our second year of doing our community clean-up on Earth Day. There’s a lot of reasons why we want to help clean up the community and one is that the community is really interested in being involved. There are always people asking to help, how they can help keep the area clean and especially the residences and the worker.”
The clean-up event is not only for community engagement, but it is also a response to one of the core values of waterfront BIA; sustainability.
Love park in downtown Toronto was the spot where volunteers flocked to help clean. The BIA provided cleaning materials such as gloves and garbage bags and directed the people to areas that needed more attention and cleaning.
However, people were not limited to the boundaries of the waterfront.
“[Volunteers are free to clean] anywhere, even if it’s not the waterfront and they want to go back to their own neighborhood. We obviously know more about the waterfront and which areas might need more cleaning. But if they already saw an area in their own neighborhood and wanted to go back there, we’re more than happy to give them supplies to do that,” said Dorsa Alizade Shabani, operation manager with the BIA.
This year’s event was even more busy than the last one and the Waterfront BIA is already planning to continue it next year. It was also noted that they may expand to the warmer months to draw more attention.
Additionally, waterfront BIA involves other cleaning programs including the Clean Streets team who work weekly to clean up the area. Since Queens Quay is constantly undergoing construction, they try their best to make the area clean and address all on-street issues.
Find more information about the BIA by following their Instagram page. You can also go through their website for more information about their up-coming events.
