Hamilton Waterfront Cleanup Initiative:

Sunday, May 24, 2020

The Ascension Foundation, along with a group of volunteers from our various community partners, and all walks of life will work together to clean up a beach in Hamilton Ontario. We will be picking up trash, litter, debris, in-organic waste, and recyclables; sorting it, and properly disposing of it. On this epic day, we gather our community partners as we take care of Lake Ontario, which along with the other four Great Lakes holds 21% of Earth’s surface fresh water. 

The event emulates the timeline from our inaugural Beach Cleanup, held in the spring of 2019 on Woodbine Beach in Toronto. We begin at mid-day with a representative from the Indigenous community performing a land blessing.  Lake Ontario gets its name from the Huron language word, Ontarí'io, meaning “great lake”. The lake marked a border between the Huron nation and the Iroquois confederacy in Pre-Columbian times. By not just physically caring for our lakeshore, but also formally giving thanks, we make this both a physical and emotional connection that honours our indigenous community. 

Once we have completed the cleanup, we will meet back up for a musical therapy session with meditation to help restore our bodies and minds after this wonderful effort. We as a community have reclaimed a portion of the land for our ecological stability and community enjoyment. 

We will finish the day with vegan comfort food served in a manner designed to minimize waste. There will also be a water station for reusable containers. We are lucky to partner with zero waste and vegan businesses in the city of Hamilton to manifest a day of abundant positive growth individually and environmentally.