Local politicians make a clean sweep
Action Saint Francois, the Sherbrooke-based environmental organization, got a helping hand from Compton-stanstead Member of Parliament Marie-claude Bibeau, her husband Mayor Bernard Sévigny, and the members of the Compton-stanstead Youth Council early on Saturday morning. At the direction of the organizing team, the volunteers carried out the last round of cleaning at a site on the end of Marché Street in Fleurimont.
According to Robert Léo Gendron, Director of Action Saint-françois, previous days’ efforts had already removed close to four tons of waste material from the site, including the wreck of an old car. Although that left mostly smaller items like broken shards of glass for Saturday’s team to clear away, the director said that after the morning’s work, the organization would likely be ready to say that the Marché street site was finished.
The politicians and youth council members were volunteering was part of an initiative to demonstrate the importance of social involvement in political life. After having donned their boots and gloves, the members of the volunteer team were told to be on the lookout for dangerous materials and also wasp nests, as a previous clean up team had disturbed a nest with disastrous consequences.
Another representative of ASF who was present on-site explained that the organization tends to focus its clean-up efforts on shorelines in the area and that despite the rainy weather so far this year, only one of the planned sessions has been cancelled so far this season. The organization typically carries out these cleanups between May and November, and has been doing so in the Sherbrooke area since 1993.
According to Gendron, ASF is currently in the process of planning an exhibition of interesting or unusual items that have been found as a part of their cleanup efforts, which will be put on display later this year.
More information about the work of Action Saint Francois is available at http://asf-estrie.org.