The Lake Windermere Ambassadors are hoping for sunny skies for the 16th annual Shoreline Clean-up.

This event, co-hosted by the Ambassadors this year, is a great way to help tidy up the shores of Lake Windermere after a long and busy summer of beach-goers and boating.

The Ambassadors, and any and all interested in volunteering their time to help clean up, will be meeting at Kinsmen Beach at 10 a.m. on September 24.

Gloves and garbage bags will be provided by the Ambassadors, and the District will be collecting and disposing of the collected refuse.

“One of the reasons why this is a good event is because the shoreline clean-up has us take in data,” said Kirsten Harma, program co-ordinator of the Ambassadors. “We count and identify what we collect.”

This data intake allows the Ambassadors and the Lake Windermere Project staff, who have hosted the clean-up in the past, to record how much litter is on the shore and if there is more or less than previous years.

“In 2009, we found something close to 101 cigarette butts and 70 candy wrappers,” Harma said. “So if we find at least half of that this year or less, then it’s a really good thing.”

Along with the cigarette butts, 17 full bags of garbage and recyclables were removed from the shore in 2009, in a 18.2 kilometre distance from the shoreline.

The Shoreline Clean-up event is also part of the International Coastal Clean-up effort.

Volunteers across the country will be cleaning up coastal beaches and shores, and other local shorelines, disposing of refuse and recyclables appropriately and recording data of what was collected.

This effort aims to help reduce debris and litter in Canadian rivers, lakes, oceans and more cross-country, and over 50,000 participants are anticipated to be involved at over 1,500 sites.

Invermere is, of course, one of these sites, and may very well need to be after a long and busy summer by the beach.

“We have to live with the consequences of our actions and the actions of others,” said Harma. “People have spent the whole summer with things tossed on the beach or in the lake with them washing up on shore.”

For more information on the Shoreline Clean-up, or further ways to get involved with the Lake Windermere Ambassadors, call 250-341-6898.