Grade 7 student Simeona Molloy helped along with other students from her school to clean up the Osoyoos Lake shoreline on Sept. 26. (Dale Boyd / Osoyoos Times)
By Dale Boyd
Osoyoos Times
Around 90 Grade 2 and 7 students from Osoyoos Elementary set off to clean the Osoyoos Lake shoreline Thursday morning.
Grade 7 students Sophia Fernandes and Simeona Molloy were excitedly picking up garbage along with other students in their group around the Veterans Memorial — just one of five or so groups that split up to cover the entire shoreline.
Fernandes said part of why the clean up is important is pollution can harm animals in the lake.
She said the experience was a good opportunity for “missing work at school,” but followed up saying “this is good work.”
“Garbage can cause pollution and pollution can cause destruction,” Molloy said.
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Birgit Arnstein, president of the Osoyoos Lake Water Quality Society, helped organized the shoreline clean-up.
“We’re interested in protecting the lake, keeping garbage out of the lake is part of what we are concerned with,” Arnstein said.
Along with other efforts by the society, the shoreline clean up is a good way to get students involved in protecting the environment around them.
“Especially with the school children because it makes them think if they’re about to drop something on the ground, they will think twice if they are cleaning it up after,” Arnstein said.
