The second year of cleaning the Highway of Heroes has wrapped up and organizers are hopeful people are getting the message about throwing garbage along the sacred highway.
Corporal Nick Kerr, Master Corporal (retired) Collin Fitzgerald and Civilian Kerri Tadeu, adopted the entire stretch of the Highway of Heroes that stretches from Trenton to Toronto that is the route fallen soldiers travel from CFB Trenton to the Coroner’s Office in Toronto. Starting in 2002, the grassroots movement of people paying their respects by lining the bridges along the highway gained attention throughout the world.
Tadeu’s good friend, Major Michelle Knight Mendes from Grafton died in Afghanistan and after her friend was carried home in April of 2009 she made it a personal mission to affect change in “Mic’s” honour. “The Highway of Heroes Adoption Four One Hundred & Fifty-Eight in Honour of Major Michelle Knight Mendes is a way to pay respects to the fallen soldiers, their families and their friends for we know that when one member of the family serves, the entire family serves.”
“Michelle shined bright in life and through various mental health initiatives created for Veterans and First Responders in her memory, she will shine just as bright in death,” said Tadeu.
Under the Highway of Heroes Adoption in Honour of Major Knight Mendes, $750 has been donated to MADD Canada from returning the alcohol containers picked up on the on and off ramps of the Highway of Heroes over the last two years and $750 has been donated to Project Trauma Support thanks to Cobourg resident Lorna Dickson,
Tadeu said Dickson is “The Highway of Heroes Earth Angel” for her unending support of The Highway of Heroes Adoption.
Fitzgerald and Tadeu ran multiple Mental Health First Aid Courses every month with Broadmind’s Sherry Lachine teaching the courses, certifying 145 individuals in Mental Health First Aid thanks to Veterans Affairs Canada for covering the cost of the courses for the veteran community.
After the clean wrapped up in Newtonville, with Port Hope residents Adam Pearson and Chantal Sturgess, Tadeu said cleaning the highway twice a year, weeks leading up to National Day of Honour on May 9 and weeks leading up to Remembrance Day on November 11, she believes “when people know better, they do better” and knowing more about who is cleaning the Highway of Heroes and why they are cleaning, people are doing better by littering less and asking questions about the history of The Highway of Heroes.
“What’s really exciting is after two years of cleaning 344 kilometers of the Highway of Heroes (172 km East and 172 km West) twice a year we’ve noticed a huge difference in the amount of garbage we are picking up.”
Tadeu credits Miller Maintenance and their Emergency Response employee Rob Baird, for their efforts in maintaining the cleanliness of the highway in between the Spring and Fall Clean this year. Volunteers who participated in the 2018 Fall Clean of the Highway of Heroes are from the veteran community, veterans and first responders and those who care about them. Soldiers, veterans and civilian volunteers traveled from Niagara, Guelph, New Market, Ottawa and Kingston to clean the Highway of Heroes.
“From a psychological point of view I think people have a harder time throwing garbage on a clean area. Everyone doing their little part to keep the sacred soil known as the Highway of Heroes clean is making a huge difference.”
It’s the fourth time people have come out to clean along the highway. The Ministry of Transportation directs them where they can and can’t clean and there are strict regulations that must be adhered to for safety reasons.
During the first clean along the highway, it was just Kerr, Fitzgerald and Tadeu, who cleaned the 344 km stretch over a three week period driving 5 hours and cleaning for 11 hours each day that they cleaned.
“The Highway of Heroes holds a lot of Canadian pride and pain and having the ability and responsibility to reach out to the veteran community to volunteer to clean, a lot of volunteers walk about from the clean having moved their pain into purpose from cleaning the land of the free because of the brave, Remembering who matters and why they matter.
“Our Highway of Heroes adoption is routed 95% in Mental Health and 5% in garbage”.
Tadeu herself has complex Mental Health issues from surviving compounding traumatic experiences and volunteers her time speaking publicly to share a message that “our stories are all different but our pain is all the same. The greater the amount of pain and adversity one experiences, the greater the responsibility one has to affect change.”
Inviting an individual from the Veteran community to come out of isolation to share the same space with others from the veteran community to talk or just walk beside while picking up garbage is very therapeutic.
Firefighter Jason Burd traveled from Ottawa along with RCMP officer Tanya Kerber to help out along the clean in the Cobourg and Grafton area.
Burd suffered in silence for years with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Since seeking help and receiving his service dog, Blaze, he has been blazing a new trail with her by his side.
“It is a disappointment to see what people discard out windows,” said Burd while taking a short break to speak with Today’s Northumberland.
“Obviously people are drinking while driving which I thought was a thing of the past. Also throwing out needles, just garbage alone seems like such a shame anywhere let alone on the Highway of Heroes.”
“I’ve always remembered people gathering on bridges and what an honour it was to be Canadian and think about the sacrifices our soldiers gave for our freedom. I wanted to be there then, but I’m happy to be here now to do a little part of what this is all about it”.
Battling PTSD for the last eight years, Burd said, “It’s a great feeling being apart of a team again.” “That’s one of the things that hurt a lot was being away from my brothers and sisters, but now to be apart of this team – it feels good.”
MPP Lindsey Park provided the following quote for Today’s Northumberland after Durham Regional Police Detective Constable Christine Firth organized a team of volunteers made up of her first responder colleagues.
“Thank you to all the Durham Regional Police who helped clean up a major part of the Highway of Heroes today from Pickering to Bowmanville. We are a stronger and safer community every day because of your selfless service.”
Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry Veteran, Sergeant (retired) Dean Irvine is in Australia participating in the Invictus Games with members of Team Canada, but prior to leaving proudly wore his Canadian Invictus jersey while cleaning along the highway in the Brighton area.
The 48-year-old married father of two lives in Welland and served two tours of Bosnia during his 22-year military career.
In 2004 he suffered a brain injury in the military that was compounded by an accident with a tractor trailer in the following years.
“I came out today to honour my brothers who died in Afghanistan and I’m really proud to help clean the Highway of Heroes”
“This year I’ve spent a lot of time closing doors, but this is one I want to open and one that I want to approach and help out a lot more.”
Irvine is taking part in rowing, wheelchair rugby and power lifting during the Invictus Games.
During the first clean along the Highway of Heroes a total of 389 bags of garbage were picked up along with multiple truckloads of large debris.
Among this year’s collection of garbage was windows, propane canisters, needles, alcohol containers, gloves, license plates, small amounts of money, hundreds of Tim Hortons coffee cups and hundreds of plastic water bottles.
“Throwing trash out the window on North America’s busiest highway has horrendous effects on our ecosystems as a whole,” said Fitzgerald.
“The majority of the plastic pollution in lakes and oceans comes from land with rivers being a major conduit. Plastic is non-biodegradable and what remains as floating trash in the Great Lakes consists of microplastics, which are consumed by fish and enter the food chain. Everyone plays a role in prevention efforts and protecting our water resources.”
During the 2018 Fall Clean volunteers picked up 132 bags of garbage with less than half a truck load of large debris.
What is a rare find on The Highway Of Heroes during the Spring and Fall Cleans are Starbucks coffee cups. “An interesting observation is Tim Hortons coffee cups are on every on and off ramp for 172 km east and 172 km west, “but rarely do we ever find a Starbucks coffee cup,” said Tadeu.
Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry Veteran Bruce Frampton is the Veteran Ambassador for CannaConnect and MedReleaf, the Sponsors for the Highway of Heroes Adoption.
Frampton organized with Kingston CannaConnect Director Sunni Boisvert to provide gas cards for the volunteers to journey up and down the Highway of Heroes for the 2018 Spring and Fall Clean relieving Kerr, Fitzgerald and Tadeu from continued personal out of pocket gas expenses traveling from Kingston to clean the Highway of Heroes.
Boisvert not only supported the Fall Clean in many outstanding ways, she also cleaned the Highway of Heroes during the 2018 Fall Clean, ending the day at Yorkies in Cobourg where the Highway of Heroes volunteers are always greeted with extraordinary hospitality by the owner, Dave York.
A Highway of Heroes Adoption Four One Hundred & Fifty-Eight In Honour of Major Michelle Knight Mendes Memorial is being unveiled in Kingston this weekend at Our Nations Heroes Hockey Game organized by Dave Sopha’s Portraits of Honour Foundation. Former Chief of Defence Staff General (retired) Walter Natynczyk is unveiling the memorial with Families of the Fallen Soldiers from the Afghanistan War.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
