Local volunteers give planet a helping hand

They can’t talk or even walk but 37 babies wrapped in cloth spent Saturday promoting environmentally friendly alternatives to disposable diapers just in time for Earth Day and an afternoon nap.

Parents held up their laughing, cooing — and even sleeping — babies, after attempting to break last year’s Guinness World Record of 5,026 cloth diapers simultaneously changed at more than 230 locations spread across 13 countries.

They won’t know until later this week if they succeeded.

The diaper challenge was one of several events held on the weekend for Earth Day, which officially was Sunday.

It’s the second year Margaret Deneau, 32, hosted the Great Cloth Diaper Change in her Sweetheart Diapers store at 4782 Wyandotte St. E. as a tribute not only to Earth Day but International Cloth Diaper Awareness Week.

“The whole point of this event is to raise awareness and educate people about cloth diapers, or real diapers,” Deneau said. “It’s a fun, silly thing but it really does raise awareness about cloth diapers.”

Deneau has been using cloth diapers for the past 4 years on her two children, including six-month-old Cole who participated in the diaper change. A baby crawling race followed the diaper change, with parents trying to lure their tots to the finish line with food and glowing cellphones.

“In a nutshell, the new modern diapers are a lot easier than what your grandparents used. So I tell people, come into the store and just look at what’s out there today. They will save you money, they’re better for the environment and better for your baby’s health.”

Cloth diapering can save families from $2,300 up to $5,000 and pay for themselves within a six-month period, according to Diapering Decisions, a Canadian home-based cloth diaper business.

Meanwhile, at Black Oak Heritage Park, a team of volunteers spent Saturday filling four dumpsters with garbage that had been carelessly strewn through the park.

“You could furnish a full house with the stuff we found,” said Peter Berry, the harbour master for the Windsor Port Authority. “It’s horrific.”

In partnership with The Detroit River Canadian Cleanup, the City of Windsor, the Essex Region Conservation Authority and the Windsor-Essex County Environment Committee, Berry and close to 50 volunteers cleaned a section of Black Oak Heritage Park and a drain that leads to the Detroit River near Ojibway Parkway and Broadway Avenue.

Almost 200 tires, a kitchen sink, a vacuum cleaner and even a boat were pulled from the path.

ERCA’s Caroline Biribauer had a simple message for the people responsible for the mess.

“Stop and have a conscience,” she said after a gruelling morning. “Think twice about dumping.”

Berry said all-terrain vehicles and motorcycles riding through the park have done “substantial damage and destroyed drainage.

“People don’t even know this is a park. It doesn’t even look like a park.”

The organizers were happy with the turnout and surprised when people noticed the crowd and randomly stopped to offer a helping hand.

Biribauer had no time to rest after that event. On Sunday she was busy orchestrating a massive tree planting.

For the 13th year in a row, ERCA spent Earth Day planting thousands of trees with the help of local corporate and cultural groups.

Percy Hatfield, a Windsor city councillor who chairs the ERCA board, said about 500 people braved the blustery weather to line McHugh Park, just east of the WFCU Centre, with pin oak and white cedar trees. After years of planting a total of 16,000 trees at Malden Park, ERCA chose McHugh as its new location. This was the first year at the new location, which also served as a site to sell rain barrels and collect e-waste.

“For a lot of the groups and families, it’s become an annual tradition and a way to continue to honour Earth Day -— though we say every day is Earth Day,” Biribauer said.