Bernie Wolfe student wins for cleaning neighbourhood

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This article was published 24/06/2014 (4291 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Bernie Wolfe Community School student received an ending worthy of Disney on June 19.

Grade 3 student Caitlyn Horbaty, 9, was announced as one of two winners of Take Pride Winnipeg!’s Easy as 1-2-3 contest at her school that day. Horbaty and her family were surprised with a trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla.

To enter the contest, Horbaty and the over 1,200 other participants completed “litter logs,” where they picked up at least three pieces of trash per day and wrote down the items that they found. Take Pride Winnipeg! executive director Tom Ethans explained Horbaty’s name was drawn from a hat of eligible entries to win the contest. Classroom prizes were also awarded to local participating schools.

Horbaty said she had no idea she would be awarded the trip when Ethans called her up in front of her peers. Ethans let Horbaty know she’d won the trip by giving her a water bottle, which she’d need because “it’s hot in Florida.”

She said her father, Fred, first heard about the contest and encouraged her and her brother, David, to enter. Beginning in March, Horbaty made a point of being vigilant in picking up litter along Foch Avenue in south Transcona.

“We did it almost every day,” she said. “Near the end, we were picking up over 10 (pieces of litter at a time).”

In particular, Horbaty said Foch’s ditches were in need of tidying, and she has noticed major improvements since starting the contest.

Ethans said his organization generated the idea to start the contest based on the concept that if all Manitobans pick up just one piece of litter, our communities would be much greener.

“We thought ‘Let’s challenge the students to pick up three pieces of litter per day, but also to write down what they’ve picked up so we know what’s out there on the streets,’” Ethans explained. “We thought it would be a fun thing for the students to do and they would get a good learning experience out of it.”

Ethans noticed streets, boulevards, and other areas looking cleaner as a result of the contest.

“I saw a lot of areas where we knew the schools were doing cleanups, and it really helped to get some of the kids out there,” he said.

Ethans said the data from the litter logs will be forwarded to Recycle Everywhere, which was a partner in the contest. He admitted he was surprised by how much of the trash ended up being recyclable.

He added students were discouraged from picking up dangerous items like cigarette butts and broken glass.

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