Main photo: Jennifer Jerrett with the pile of garbage she discovered when she arrived at work on July 15 (Community Living Huntsville)
A disheartening morning at Community Living Huntsville quickly turned into an example of how Huntsville comes together to support its community.
When Jennifer Jerrett, CLH’s community engagement specialist, drove into work on Thursday morning she was surprised to see 30 garbage bags full of trash that had been left at the organization’s curb.
“I pulled in and thought holy cow. I was worried about the perception of CL and people driving by since we follow recycling programs diligently so I didn’t want anyone to think it was all ours,” she said.
Like all locations with curbside pickup, CLH must adhere to bag limits. Jerrett knew they’d have to dispose of the excess themselves.
Feeling upset about it all, Jerrett took to Facebook hoping that members of the community would be able to grab a couple of bags if they were headed to the dump.
Within 30 minutes, she had a number of messages from people offering to help and by 10 a.m. every single bag at been taken to the dump.
“You should have seen the community come together,” said Jerrett. “My phone was going berserk with people wanting to help. I was blown away. It really does take a village and our village is full of amazing people.”
Randy Vowels, owner of Tall Trees Muskoka, and his server Meagan Kilppenstein, as well as Alex Callacott, owner of Savage Concrete, filled up their trucks and even paid the dump fees themselves.
Randy Vowels (centre) and Meagan Kilppenstein (left) from Tall Trees Muskoka load bags of trash into their truck (Community Living Huntsville)
“I just wanted to help! It’s what decent humans do…help each other in times of need,” said Vowels. “Community Living is a great organization that has had enough to deal with over the pandemic and they didn’t need this added to their plate. We happen to be moving some stuff around getting ready for the move back to indoor dining and it was simply the right thing to do. So we stopped in between loads and grabbed a load of garbage to take the dump. It’s amazing someone thought this was okay, but we were happy to lend a hand and a truck.”
Alex Callacott, owner of Savage Construction, heaps the rest of the garbage into his truck (Community Living Huntsville)
And just like that, the garbage is gone. (Community Living Huntsville)
Jerrett said she’s noticed that dumping trash is a huge issue across Muskoka, and asked residents to keep an eye out.
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Wonderful to see so many great people responding positively to this most annoying garbage crisis! Every year there is garbage dumped on private property on Brown’s Road as well!
Would making a trip to the dump less costly deter people from imposing their garbage on others?!
It would have been interesting to open a few of those bags and find clues about where those bags came from. When I lived in Toronto (shudder), during the garbage strike someone had dumped a full and very heavy bag of garbage against our driveway gate opening into the alley, effectively blocking the gate. I sifted through the contents of the bag, finding trash from the kitchen, workshop, outside, and….office. Several envelopes and items of correspondence revealed an address two blocks away. I deposited the bag on the doorstep against the front screen door late that night, effectively blocking it. About a week later my wife at the time overheard two teenagers conversing outside the gate while hiding in the corner and smoking pot. One complained about how his bag of trash had ended up on his own doorstep. His companion said, “Your life is just a bad soap opera, isn’t it?”
What a disgusting display of utter disregard for others! Many thanks to all who “jumped into the breach”.
It appalls me that we have such cretins as would dump a truckload of garbage on the CLH property, especially when it’s garbage day, and the trucks come to your driveway.
This is ‘ist vandalism at it’s worst. Shame on the lowlifes who did this.