Many Barrie residents celebrated Earth Day by grabbing big yellow bags and pitching in to clean up the waterfront.
Waterfront Clean-Up Day is part of Barrie's Spring Into Clean 2017, an annual event that occurs during Earth Week.
The local branch of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association had a large crowd turn out at Heritage Park.
"There's about 100 of us that have come out today to help with the clean up efforts at the waterfront. It's a great opportunity for us to participate in the community and give back," said Mahmood Sheikh.
"We have a great opportunity with this park. It's one of our gifts here in Barrie so we want to take care of this jewel for sure."
There were many first timers taking part in the waterfront clean-up but all expressed great appreciation of the area.
Kelly Platt and Mark Bonnell live downtown and came out for the first time.
"We spend a lot of time down here," said Platt.
"We live right here," said Bonnell, gesturing to a nearby apartment building. "This is our backyard. We walk our dogs down here. We drink our coffee down here."
Lori Paulenko collected her t-shirt and yellow garbage bag and was heading around the Bay to Dock Rod.
"I'm doing it because I spend a lot of time over on Dock Road and it's a beautiful area. In between the rocks is like, the kids leave their pop cans and everything around there so I spend time there. I want to enjoy it so I might as well clean it up," said Paulenko
Linda Benson teamed up with her dog Macbeth.
"We're here everyday and we're cleaning up so there's no garbage that he can eat," she said.
Community Clean-Up and Corporate Clean-Up Days are also taking place this weekend.
During last year's Spring Into Clean events 15,856 residents collected 6.1 tonnes of litter and cleaned up over a combined area of Barrie 159,328 sq. meters.
