Clean North Awards winners recognized for environmental work

Clean North has announced 11 Clean North Awards winners.

Following are short profiles of the winners from Clean North:

Elementary student awards:

• Sam Phaneuf, Emma Phaneuf, Rachel Featherston, and Lauren Featherston were the main contributors to Sault Ste. Marie's Fridays For Future event, presenting informed and accessible appeals to people and government to do all they can to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are fueling climate change.

Secondary student awards:

• Lauren Pezzutto is an active youth environmental steward who has led her school in environmental initiatives, resulting in it being certified as an Ecoschool.  More recently, Lauren accepted a cooperative education placement at the Invasive Species Centre, learning more about invasive species and their impacts on ecosystems. As an avid hiker, Lauren often picks up trash left behind, so it does not harm wildlife and/or the environment.
• Carson Mowbray is an active youth environmental steward and was a co‑op student for Clean North at the 2022 Rotaryfest, volunteering all three days diverting waste by hand for composting and recycling.  As a Clean North volunteer, he also helped with running Seedy Saturday’s hands-on worm composting activity, processing waste for curbside recycling and composting at Harvest Algoma, delivering compost to the Emmaus Community Garden, and setting up a worm composter as part of the Garbage 2 documentary being shot locally.

Citizen awards:

• Angela Belleau was a key partner for the Ketegaunseebee Food Sovereignty Project, a youth-led volunteer effort that involved distributing 240 perennial food‑producing plants to Garden River First Nation Community members with special consideration for elders and youth. The goal was to better Garden River First Nation’s food sovereignty by increasing the amount of food grown there. Plants distributed included fruit trees, nut trees, berry‑producing shrubs, and grape vines, which will produce food for decades, benefiting current and future generations.
• Sarah Lalonde is endeavouring to add native (and near-native) plants to rewild her property. This past winter, she attempted winter sowing, a process of germinating native plant seeds by sowing them in containers and setting them outside for the winter. She filled 174 containers to bring food and host plants to our pollinator friends.  She also donated harvested seeds to others and spent time teaching children about seed harvesting and winter sowing.  Last summer, she planted more than 100 native plants and shrubs to her property. 
• From the time the snow melts to when the snow shows up, Ruth Thompson can be seen picking up trash along Highway 17 by Bruce Mines. Known as “Auntie Ruth” to hundreds of kids and the “Garbage Lady” to many others, she sets an example as an environmental ambassador who champions keeping our earth clean. She regularly writes articles on gardening and growing for local media outlets and is a supporter of Seedy Saturday. 

Business/organization awards:

• Club Invasive is made up of four elementary/neighbourhood students (Sam Phaneuf, Emma Phaneuf, Rachel Fetherston, and Lauren Fetherston) in Grades 5 through 7 who formed to educate others on the impacts of invasive species.  Over the past year and a half, they have done park clean ups, pulled garlic mustard by the trails, engaged in bird watching and learning about native species, and were the key speakers for Greta Thunberg Day of Action for Climate Change, making the city of aware of planted invasive species in our local parks. 
• Wawa Community Gardens recently expanded and increased community member uptake to encourage and support people growing their own foods. They also partnered with the local food bank and public library to start a Seed Library and provide workshops to teach gardening methods to area residents.