Impressive turn-out for Kincardine shoreline clean-up

By: Christine Roberts August 22, 2026 548

Impressive turn-out for Kincardine shoreline clean-up

The emphasis was on community during the Lake Huron Coastal Centre’s shoreline clean-up at Kincardine’s Station Beach, Aug. 15.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning, and the beach and surrounding recreation area were already busy with volleyball players, boaters, and people strolling the boardwalk and enjoying the surf and sand.

However, dozens of Kincardine and area residents and members of community organizations arrived for the purpose of helping the sensitive coastal environment by scouring the shoreline and removing harmful debris.

The coastal centre partnered with several local groups, including Huron Bruce Nature, the Kincardine and District Lions Club, CheVron Solutions, KEAN (Kincardine Environmental Action Network) and the Municipality of Kincardine, for this event. Volunteers from partner organizations assisted with registration, distribution of materials, promotion, food preparation and serving.

Also present with educational material, was a representative of the Great Lakes Plastic Clean-up, an initiative of Pollution Probe and the Council of the Great Lakes Region.

Almost 80 volunteers, equipped with work gloves, buckets and grabber sticks, fanned out over the beach and surrounding parkland to collect litter for close to two hours.

As the beachcombers returned, coastal centre staff assisted in sorting collected materials into receptacles for trash and recyclables. Items collected and recorded on the tally cards ranged from beverage containers, bottle caps, food wrappers, packaging materials, pieces of metal and wood to fragments of foam and plastic and the ever-present cigarette butts. Ultimately, 10 bags of garbage were collected for removal by municipal workers.

After their hard work, volunteers were rewarded with a barbecue lunch, prepared and served by the Kincardine Lions.

Coastal centre executive director Alyssa Bourassa, event co-ordinator, was impressed by the spirit of community caring and environmental stewardship shown by volunteers. The centre and its event partners are grateful to everyone who participated in, or sponsored, the clean-up.

For more information about the work of the Lake Huron Coastal Centre, as well as future clean-ups and other events, follow the organization on social media: @coastalcentre; visit the website: www.lakehuron.ca; or subscribe to its on-line newsletter.