The Rotary ‘GREAT LAKES WATERSHED CLEANUP’ is here. From Saturday April 24 (to coincide with Earth Day on April 22) through mid June 2021, over 20,000 Rotarians on both sides of the Canadian and U.S. border will roll up their sleeves to collect refuse along the shoreline, and innumerable waterway tributaries to the Great Lakes basin. This is great example of ‘ROTARY IN ACTION’ and brings considerable community attention to the importance of ‘ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY’
The District 7070 Environmental Action Committee is leading the Great Lakes Watershed Cleanup Initiative, as it gets rolled out right across our District. This is an initiative hatched by our District 7070 Governor Mark Chipman, with his fellow District Governors surrounding the Great Lakes. Mark is very excited about the potential for this event and here's why..... It’s actually huge – with 15 districts involved – 500 Clubs & 20,000 Rotarians. This is your Call To Action - What is your club doing?
To date we have commitments from 15 Districts bordering the Great Lakes as well as the Niagara, St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers and the Erie Canal in New York State. How about your club? We are naming the event the Great Lakes Watershed Cleanup to open it up to any club on a waterway that empties into the Great Lakes system. Rotary International Director Valarie Wafer with Rotary International President Holger Knaack are both supportive of this collaborative project.
This will be a great way to engage our Rotary Family and non-Rotarians in a day of action, draw attention to our fragile environment and our desire to be part of the solution. With the plan for heavy promotion it is an opportunity to bring awareness to the good work of Rotary.