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Small Planet Clean-Up contest begins for second year

$1,000 in prizes up for grabs this year
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From right are Tara Jordan and Zanya Kubacki presenting $200 to last year’s winners Chick Siu and Shannon Proctor-McLeod. Photo supplied.

The second annual Small Planet Clean-up Contest is gearing up, just in time for Earth Day.

Campbell River’s Small Planet Energy will be organizing the event, which gives participants one month to clean up Campbell River’s trails, forests, beaches and roads. This year, over $1,000 in prizes will be awarded, as well as the prize of a cleaner Campbell River and a positive impact on the local environment.

“Participants will have a month to do their own clean-ups and entries will be made by taking before and after pictures of the good work everyone is doing to help our small planet,” reads a release from Small Planet Energy.

Last year brought in hundreds of pounds of trash from around the city.

The rules are simple. From now until Friday, April 23 (the day after Earth Day), take before and after photos of garbage you find and clean-up (using all safety precautions)

Submit your photos on Small Planet Energy’ Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/smallplanetenergy/, the event page https://www.facebook.com/events/193967519194203, or by email to tara@smallplanetenergy.ca

The company has over $1,000 in cash prizes to give away. The first prize ($500) will go to the group that brings in the most trash. Second place will get $300 and $100 will go to third place. There will also be $50 for the top three children’s clean ups. Entrants that have to overcome obstacles like transportation barriers, longer distances to transport garbage, socio-economic barriers or other difficulties will be given “bonus points.”

“We’ve just been doing ‘lip service’ to the garbage problem around here for a long time,” said last year’s winner Chick Siu. “It’s become a habit for us to pick up garbage on our daily walks now, so it’s really hard for us to walk past any without grabbing it. We have picked up at least 2 grocery bags of garbage every single day since our official clean up ended, and we are definitely going to keep going. Our 40 minute walks take 60 minutes now, but it just feels so good to be doing this.

Ashleigh Clark and Benjamin Coyle will be on the judging panel, and Island Owl Mazda helped donate $500 towards the prizes this year.

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