Ken Slingerland
Special to The Lake Report
Twelve members of the Kinsmen Club of Niagara-on-the-Lake cleaned up Niagara Stone Road on Saturday, Oct. 1, collecting garbage from Henegan Road in Virgil to Anderson Lane in Old Town.
The cleanup blitz was in honour of Kinsmen life member Bob Forbes, who died of cancer earlier in the summer.
He initiated the service club’s Adopt-a-Road program 10 years ago and chaired the cleanup until 2019.
The Niagara Region initiative is a public service program for citizen and volunteer organizations to pick up litter along approved regional Niagara roadsides.
It is a way for environmental-conscious citizens and community organizations to contribute to a cleaner and more beautiful regional road system.
Over the past 10 years, many of the Kinsmen have donated their time to collect garbage  along Hwy. 55 three times each year.
Club members have participated 30 times in total, even during COVID-19, accumulating a total of 1,440 community service hours.
They collect an average of 12 garbage bags full of litter each time, so over the past decade have removed some 360 bags of trash from along the roadside.
The Kinsmen Club of Niagara-on-the-Lake was established in 1970 and members meet two times a month at the Kinsmen Scout Hall at 430 King St.
The Kinsmen members on hand for the Oct. 1 cleanup included Wig Baldauf, Alan Teichroeb, Fred Teichgraf, Mike Friesen, Ed Marcynuk, Bob Dick, Phil Bergen, Harold Dyck, Rod Konik, Ken Slingerland, Karl Evans and John Vanderlee.