A Facebook group has sparked Flin Flonners to clean up litter, creating a celebration of the environment on Mother’s Day, a chance to get active during COVID-19 and a way to keep the community clean.
Mother's Day for Mother Earth began as a small online campaign to celebrate Mother’s Day with work to help the environment - namely, by picking up trash around the Flin Flon area.
Kara Plamondon created the group with some friends after bad weather shut down a tradition in her family.
Every Earth Day, the Plamondons head out around Bakers Narrows and pick up litter from the area, including around Highway 10. When Mother Nature snowed on Flin Flon that day, the clean-up was called off. In response, Plamondon decided to not only move the family’s clean-up to Mother’s Day, but to create a group online to promote litter pick-up around the community.
"I wanted to do something positive," said Plamondon.
The group took off over the coming days, growing to over 700 members before Mother’s Day. Cleanups have been carried out throughout Flin Flon, Creighton, along highways and at cottage subdivisions at Bakers Narrows, Twin Lakes and elsewhere.
"It's just kind of blown up. The plan was first to maybe kind of plan an event or something. As soon as we started, we found out people were out picking garbage already. It was perfect because then people had a platform to talk about what they were doing and new people became motivated to help pick up," Plamondon said.
Some local businesses have got involved, donating garbage bags and supplies to people out picking up trash as part of Mother’s Day for Mother Earth. During COVID-19, people have used the litter pickups as a special invitation to gather outdoors as a family while doing something constructive.
"There's so many awesome people who have stepped up. There are people who pick up garbage all the time and they don't get any thanks for it and we're really glad some of them have joined the group. We can give them lots of cheers and help them out, maybe add to their teams of people who have been out cleaning here and there," Plamondon said.
"It just kind of lifts everybody's spirits. It's something really positive that they can do when you feel there's nothing you can do. It's been really good for mental health and morale, I think."
The group’s spread and popularity have come as a surprise to its creator.
"We didn't know how many people were going to be interested in this kind of stuff. We've gotten around 500 people. That's awesome. It's amazing,” Plamondon said.
"I think it's so awesome the way that it's spreading and that people are using it as a way to boost people up for the work others are doing."
Some of the items that people have found have garnered their own attention. Several of the cleaners have found money bushes or ditches. One other fabricated find gave Plamondon a chuckle.
"Someone put up there - as a joke - a half-empty wine bottle next to a pregnancy test and posted it. It was hilarious," she said.
"People are making the best of the situation that we're in and going out and cleaning up garbage is one way of doing this."
As a family event, Plamondon hopes the clean-up group can provide a hands-on chance for children and young adults to learn about the consequences of littering and the importance of environmental stewardship.
"I think that having kids go out and do this really helps show them the consequences of littering and the reasons why we recycle. I know we were picking garbage and my kids were talking about how they would never litter. I think with people who are doing this work, it really teaches people about the consequences of not recycling and not taking care of your garbage. It's a really good way to teach people," she said.
"It's looking toward the future and the generation of kids looking at us, saying 'I'm not going to litter.' They get to experience it for themselves."
Mother’s Day for Mother Earth will continue after Mother’s Day into the late spring. Updates and details on how to get involved can be found on the group’s Facebook page.
