News — Don't Mess with the Don!

DMWTD volunteers were there today on Bayview for 6000 + pounds of trash cleaned and over 300 bags gone for our Don Valley. Our streets, our parks, our bike and running paths and our valley are so much cleaner because of you. Our world is being overwhelmed by plastic and so much of it is being dropped and forgotten. Left by us, fouling our planet and our very drinking water. Thank you to the 25+ people today who said ” not here, not in my community. I will be the difference “ Clean ups to date - 44 - 27 on land and 17 by sea Year to date total - 2550 bags of garbage, 64 tires, 18 bikes, 12 car bumpers, a couch, 12 shopping carts, and far far too many water bottles to count 60,421 POUNDS OF TRASH in 2024

Pop Up Clean Up - This Sunday, November 24 at 10 am. Lower Bayview is looking pretty rough, well extremely rough. We could sure use some help tidying up before the snow flies. We will be meeting at the top of the Riverdale West hill near the Farm. We will have gloves and bags and for the first time this season DMWTD's world famous, ok perhaps somewhat locally famous, homemade hot chocolate ! See you on the hill at 10 DMWTD

Tickets to the Year End Celebration are now closed. Thank you to everyone who rsvp'd and we will see you on December 6th 😀 🎉

Hi Everyone We haven't had a chance to update our clean up stats mostly because we have been out cleaning up. With the addition of our Paddle and Protect kayaking program and all the amazing work done by our volunteers getting trash out of our waterways, 2024 has been our busiest year ever for clean ups. Clean ups to date - 43 - 26 on land and 17 by sea Year to date total - 2250 bags of garbage, 64 tires, 16 bikes, 12 car bumpers, a couch, 11 shopping carts, and far far too many water bottles to count 53,921 POUNDS OF TRASH ! 😱

Hi DMWTD Volunteers It has taken us a bit to get everything arranged for our annual Year End Celebration & Dinner at Todmorden Mills but we are ready to put out the invite. As space is very limited we are asking that you register only if it is almost certain that you can attend. The Celebration is December 6th at 5 pm. The event is complementary and we have another terrific speaker this year in Jennifer Bonnell, Author of "Reclaiming the Don". This is a great chance to hear about our fabulous 2024, give your feedback and input for our programming and hear about everything that is planned for 2025. Please use this link to register https://forms.gle/T2BtQLJKU1CbAPNVA DMWTD

Clean Up and Clean Up more DMWTD has had a couple pretty awesome clean ups in past week or so. On November 3rd, Hundreds upon hundreds of wipes were removed from the riverbank of the Don by our volunteers and a pretty great Leaside hockey team. Plastics and so much else no longer poison our river. Then 15 folks came out this past Sunday and removed more than a thousand pounds of trash that had been dumped by the old railway not far from our lovely home at the Loblaws trailhead. So much was removed that the City had to bring a truck onsite. We haven't totalled the amount we have removed this year for a while so we will have to get out the calculator and do some serious math. Stats will be coming soon. Thank so much to all who give so much and so often. You are stewards and kind souls. DMWTD

Some photos from our Dirty Little Secret Race we held a couple of weeks ago 🏃‍♂️

At last Sunday’s paddle we were honoured to be joined by special guest @mayoroliviachow! We spent 2.5 hours cleaning the shorelines around Toronto Island, removing tires, plastic bags, bottles, bottle caps, food wrappers and much more. We all enjoyed the last warm rays of sunshine while we chatted about little stuff and big stuff. Thank you so much Olivia for coming out with us, for listening to our story and supporting our work to help make the city of Toronto a greener and healthier place. And many thanks to the super volunteers who paddled & towed the kayaks all the way from Cherry Beach to Ward Island and back, who made this special outing possible! #torontoisland #islandcleanup #dmwtd #oliviachow #torontomayor #the6ix #cleanup #kayaking

Please note our SATC Halloween Special program has been moved to October 26. We have 20 pumpkins fresh from the pumpkin patch to carve! We also will be creating beautiful fall wreaths again with brilliant leaves, bark, pine cones, acorns and other found items. 20 spots only and register on Eventbrite. One pumpkin per family please. If you are registering for a spot please only take one ticket even if you are bringing 2+ people. We can do unlimited wreaths. All DMWTD programs are free to everyone. Oct 26th, 10 am, 11 Redway Rd. DMWTD https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/pumpkin-carving-and-fall-wreath-making-tickets-1051273285697