CORNWALL, Ontario – Brothers Nick and Joshua Baird have had a fun and busy summer in the water of the St. Lawrence River just off of their grandfather Claude Lalande’s home.
Avid swimmers since a young age, the brothers, 13 and 10-years-old respectively, have put their skills to good use and have helped clean up their part of the St. Lawrence River.
With their trusty goggles and metal detectors Nick and Josh were able to pull large amounts of metal and glass bottles out of the river and onto the shore. They collected all of the items they currently have over the course of two weekends.
“We wanted to clean the river and help the fish,” said Nick.
Some of he most unique and unusual items that they were able to retrieve included a vintage Coca-Cola sign, a sink, a safe door and an Ontario license plate from 1963.
“They found the safe door and now they want to find the rest of it to see what was inside,” said their grandfather Claude.
Their mother, Christianne Lalande said she was very proud of her boys’ passion for cleaning up the environment.
“It is exciting to see how passionate they are for it,” she said. “You can tell by the look in their eyes that they’re having fun.”
The boys and their grandfather will be taking he metal items that they salvaged from the river to recycling for cash. This will be the second load of metal they take to the recycling centre, and they say that they have made about $100 so far.
Their grandfather Claude wonders what else might be under the waves of the St. Lawrence.
“You can imagine what’s in the waters out there, we’ve only done our little bit of waterfront,” he said.
