Leah Fitzgerald currently sits on ACAP’s Board of Director’s as our Secretary

Leah has been an active volunteer for many years and currently sits on ACAP’s Board of Directors as our Secretary. Her love for protecting the environment goes all the way back her to high school days when she was involved in the St. Malachy’s Environmental Club (run by none other than Jean MacDonald, who was Leah’s chemistry teacher at the time). 

Take a minute to read about some of leah’s favourite memories of ACAP!

When I was a student in high school, I attended a couple of meetings of the Environmental Club as a student representative (or maybe teen representative? It was the 90s and my memory is fuzzy) where the meetings were held in the old ACAP office at Market Square. I have a memory of being set loose Uptown with friends to spray paint fish next to storm drains, a small reminder that storm drains run to the ocean in our Port City.

I got the bug, though, and attended beach clean ups and watershed cleanups in multiple provinces. In 2013, I landed back at the Marsh Creek clean up, family in tow. That first year, we had the zone between the Michaels parking lot and the Irving on the corner of McAllister Drive and Rothesay Avenue. No one warned us - that field is not a field. It is peat moss. We had a squishy, wet adventure and almost lost a couple of rubber boots. We also found a cache of construction waste dumped behind the old Ritchies building and ended up winning top prize. We took home some movie tickets and a taste for doing it again.

So, to sum up, here’s why I love the Marsh Creek Clean Up:

• It’s always an adventure. There’s nothing like discovering the garbage from a baby shower, empty gift bags and tissue and clothing tags and all, on the side of the road. Or finding out the hard way just how deep the water is in the ditch on Golden Grove Road (deep enough to need waders!).

• Teamwork! My kids are always a little annoyed when we leave in the morning, but, inevitably, we meet cool people at the clean up and they get into finding trash. I still say hi to the Starbucks East Point crew who were part of our team in 2019.

• The sense of accomplishment. There is nothing like seeing a big pile of full bags and random stuff on the side of the road, ready for pick up. There is also nothing like freeing a shopping cart from a stream. Hot tip: the wheels rust pretty quickly and you’ll have to carry it, no matter how hard you think you can push it.

• Exploration! My favourite discovery, besides the peatbog, is the small waterfall hiding just off Golden Grove Road. The clean up is a chance to see a part of the city I don’t often walk around.

The Marsh Creek Cleanup is held every spring. This year was the first year we used the Irving Oil Field House as home base, and those clean bathrooms were very appreciated, especially to wash up before my other favourite part of the day - the barbeque.