Border Cats players hit the field Saturday morning, but this time they traded their bats and gloves for garbage bags and trash picks.
The Thunder Bay Border Cats teamed up with EcoSuperior and the baseball community to clean up the Westfort Playfields as part of the 20th anniversary Spring Up to Clean Up campaign.
Waste reduction and litter prevention coordinator Shannon Costigan said the Cats organization has been a supporter of Spring Up to Clean up for a number of years. This year EcoSuperior asked if the team would like to participate.
“It’s fairly nice for everyone to come out and participate in this event,” Costigan said. “We all have a responsibility to make sure the city is clean and litter free and this is a great way to engage the youth.
EcoSuperior also reached out to the little leagues organizations to participate in the clean-up.
She said lots of people were on board and she was impressed with the turnout as dozens of children raced around the diamonds alongside the Border Cats players and other volunteers to pick up trash.
Costigan said litter is more than just a community eyesore.
“It sits in our environment for a long time, it has the ability to leach chemicals out into our lands and water so it pollutes our environment.
“With wildlife, we have all seen the videos of animals trapped with jars on their head that does happen and it’s very harmful to them it could lead to severe injury and death.”
Costigan added that everyone should do their part to ensure that Thunder Bay stays clean, green and beautiful.
Border Cats Matt Murphy said his team is just trying to help clean-up the local little league’s fields.
“We have a clean place to play and we just want to give back to the community so they have a clean place to play,” he said.
“I hope they get the same opportunity that we all did, to come up through little league and high school and hopefully play for the Border Cats one day.”
The first 50 kids who signed up received a free ticket to the Border Cats game Saturday night.
