Image Credit: CFJC Today

By James Peters

Two and Out

PETERS: Kamloops beach cleanup day encourages pride of ownership in our community

Mar 15, 2024 | 12:30 PM

I’LL ADD MY VOICE to the chorus of praise for the beach cleanup day approved by Kamloops council this week.

On April 21, local citizens will take advantage of the low water levels and gather to clean up all the garbage and junk that has accumulated on our city’s beaches over the years.

Hopefully, owners of private riverfront properties will take the opportunity to do the same.

This will be successful if it gets community buy-in, but it will be much more successful if it proves to be a starting point of something even bigger.

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Wouldn’t it be great to see beach cleanup day happen every year around Earth Day?

And wouldn’t it be great if there were more people with the spirit of Parker Morrison?

She’s the local teenager who discovered that decades ago, old cars were used to buttress the shoreline from erosion in Westsyde and elsewhere in Kamloops.

Parker decided to do something about it.

When we interviewed her last year, Parker told us she wanted to bring a proposal forward to Kamloops council that would see the old car bodies replaced by native plants with strong root structures to uphold the banks.

It’s that kind of spirit that Kamloops needs more of.

Not the dour naysayers who responded to the beach cleanup stories this week by scoffing that the government should be dealing with this issue instead of citizens.

Frustration with the various levels of government is understandable these days, but that’s no reason to abdicate responsibility for our communities.

We need to take some pride of ownership here. We’re not renters — we’re owners of this city.

We can certainly express frustration and make changes at the ballot box when we feel governments are interfering with what makes our communities great.

What we shouldn’t do, though, is sit back and wait for governments to solve problems that a well-organized group of citizens could tackle.

In this case, city hall has exercised just the right touch by facilitating the initial startup.

The next step is handing it off to a community organization who can help it grow into something even bigger and better.

This initiative is a beacon in a dark sea of negativity.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.