A Cobourg woman spent her Thanksgiving Day cleaning up after others along the Highway of Heroes.
Lorna Dickson is often cleaning along the Wesleyville on and off-ramps as well as other roads in Hamilton Township cleaning up garbage.
Starting at 10 a.m. on Monday, October 13, 2025, Dickson spent over four hours cleaning the ramps.
Dickson said she feels uncomfortable saying that she’s “pleased” the amount of garbage she’s collected on Monday has gone down from five years ago when there were approximately 90 bags of garbage collected just on the eastbound on-ramp.
“It was a river of garbage, just on the one side. It’s still sad, but it’s better.”
It’s the typical garbage she sees everytime she cleans. Plastic bottles of urine, alcohol containers and practically anything else you can think of. Just off the highway on a side road she spotted seats that belonged to a vehicle.
For only the second time, Dickson collected a needle that didn’t have a cap on it.
“We’ve found other paraphernalia out here over time.”
Dickson is an inspiration on her journey to keep our world clean.
“We do it in hopes of making our planet a little better place.”
One of the people Dickson admires was the work of Jane Goodall who passed away on October 1 at 91-years-old.
Referring to Goodall, Dickson said, “if we all do something everyday – it doesn’t have to be picking up at Wesleyville, it could be shutting off a light, walk instead of drive, if we don’t throw out our litter and take out a small bag and clean up in our area – we have to be the advocates for our planet – or there won’t be one.”
“We need to do it for our future generations.”
It’s about teaching the younger generations the importance of our planet.
“Together we can make a difference.”
The river of garbage is getting better, but Dickson is well aware there will likely be garbage in the ditches within 24-hours after her cleaning them.
“I feel very sad that as humans we don’t know any better. It’s our air, it’s our land, it’s our water. We know we can’t live without it, so when it’s too late, what are we going to do?”
“We still have that opportunity to turn things around and right here shows we need to do better and can do better.”
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
