Sprucing up Naujaat
Cadet corp removes 22 bags of garbage from around hamlet
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
NAUJAAT
Members of the 3055 Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps (RCACC) decided to spruce up their community in Naujaat earlier this month.
Cadet Emmanuel Jr. Arnatsiaq hams it up for the camera as fellow cadets, back from left, Cpl. Victor Kridluar, cadet James Alaralak and cadet Jeff Ignerdjuk help fill another garbage bag during a special community cleanup by members of the Naujaat cadet corps earlier this month. - photo courtesy of Lloyd Francis |
The cadets focused on areas near Tusarvik School, the Co-op, community centre and hamlet office with their efforts.
The 3055 RCACC usually helps out when a local school holds a spruce-up campaign, but this year 19 of the cadets decided to get an early start on fall cleaning.
Capt. Lloyd Francis said the cadets scooped-up enough to fill 22 garbage bags in about 90 minutes.
He said although that's a hefty amount of garbage to be collected in a relatively short period of time, the amount of litter in the community this year is not as bad as in years past.
"There will be a school cleanup later this month, but we saw the garbage around and wanted to get a head start so it can all be picked up before the snow comes," said Francis.
"I would like to have seen more cadets out, because we do have a big corps.
"But it was a beautiful day, so I assume many of our cadets were out boating and that's totally understandable."
Francis said the garbage bags used were donated by Tusarvik School.
He said Tuugaalik High School is the new sponsor of the local corps, but Tusarvik was closer to town and school administrators had no problem donating the bags and some gloves for the cleanup.
"Citizenship is one of the main aims of the cadet program, and helping with community events and doing things like this promotes good citizenship and shows we want to give back to the community," he said. "The cadets take pride in doing a cleanup because they know helping our environment is very important, as is making our community look better.
"The shipping company NEAS has agreed to sponsor army cadets in Nunavut by providing a little funding each year.
"The company gave our corps $500 and I used a bit to buy granola bars during the cleanup. We'll use the rest of the money to buy things, as we need them, throughout the year."
