The founder of an environmental clean-up group wants people to remember Mother Earth when celebrating their mothers this weekend.<\/p>\n
Angela Riley with Scotian Shores<\/a> has organized a province-wide beach clean-up effort this May 8 Mother\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n Riley says it\u2019s a great opportunity to teach a valuable lesson to kids and do something good for the environment.<\/p>\n \u201cI love for my kids to come out and see all the people cleaning and working together and taking care of the earth. For me, as a mom that is something that I really want to pass on to them. It really means a lot to me,\u201d said Riley. \u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of moms that are coming out that are very excited to be like, this is a perfect Mother\u2019s Day thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Riley founded Scotian Shores at the start of the pandemic in the summer of 2020 when she was spending a lot of time on the beach with her kids.<\/p>\n Everyday her family would watch as more and more garbage was washed up on the shore.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if we stopped littering every little piece of garbage today, the whole entire world, we\u2019re still going to be cleaning it up for years because, [in] the Bay of Fundy we can see a ton of garbage wash ashore in one day,\u201d said Riley.<\/p>\n The mostly volunteer organization works with residents and municipalities to organize clean up days.<\/p>\n Scotian Shores supplies gloves and bags and arranges disposing of the garbage at local recycling facilities or landfills.<\/p>\n An event held in Yarmouth drew hundreds of volunteers and resulted in 10 tons of garbage being removed from the beach over two days.<\/p>\n Riley says it\u2019s satisfying for people to see the results of the efforts after just a couple of hours.<\/p>\n \u201cTo get a group of 50 people there and then see a dumpster full at the end, I mean, you\u2019re sad that that\u2019s all there but you\u2019re also really happy because you\u2019re like, yeah, I made a difference,\u201d said Riley.<\/p>\n In Queens, the Mother\u2019s Day clean-up will be held Sunday at Beach Meadows Beach beginning at 10:00am.<\/p>\n