Kathleen Brosemer receives City Medal of Merit

Kathleen Brosemer of Clean North was named today as one of three recipients of the Sault Ste. Marie Medal of Merit.

The selection committee consisted of Mayor John Rowswell, Judge Wayne Cohen, Carmella Novello, Tom Bonell and Ella Jean Richter.

The three awards will presented at the Sault Ste. Marie Civic Centre in the New Year.

The other recipients announced today were Howard Tishman and Lucy Lay and the late Jack Lay.

The following information about Brosemer was released today by City Clerk Donna Irving:

****************************************************************** The Medal of Merit Selection Committee is pleased to announce Kathleen Brosemer as a 2002 Sault Ste. Marie Medal of Merit winner.

The significance attached to the awarding of this community medal to Kathleen Brosemer is indicative of the contributions she has made to environment issues that affect this community through her involvement with Clean North.

Clean North has maintained a high profile in this community since 1990.

It is the largest community-based environmental group in Northern Ontario (website: www.cleannorth.org).

Its mission statement is "to promote environmental protection through reduction, reuse, and recycling of residential and industrial waste in Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma District."

Kathleen is recognized as the organization's continuous, ongoing, primary activist from the beginning to the present.

Background on Kathleen Brosemer, Clean North

Few organizations which begin with a singular mandate with humble origins in the kitchen of a private home achieve ongoing success, even flourish with a membership of approximately 300.

Another noteworthy point is the fact that Clean North has never received core funding and yet continues a storefront operation on Queen Street.

The office is totally dependent upon volunteers to ensure the doors are open to the general public.

Recent initiatives of Clean North include the ongoing paint exchange and the Bicycle Workship where bicycles can be borrowed for downtown cycling, where donated bikes and parts are reassembled to produce (recycle) fully functional bicycles.

You can earn a free bicycle if you dedicate hours of labor to the bicycle recycling process.

There was also an educational initiative operated by Clean North to instruct area cottagers on how best to prevent lake pollution. Summer students hired by Clean North through an HRDC grant actually visit the cottagers via canoe.

A most recent success was the intense lobbying effort to convince Council to finally endorse a Hazardous Waste Depot in Sault Ste. Marie.

Perhaps Clean North's success and reason for its longevity can be partly attributed to its involvement with other community organizations.

Clean North has co-operated or partnered with the City of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario Works, John Howard Society, Canadian Red Cross, Algoma Lung Association, Operation Springboard, Sault Horticultural Society and local high schools providing an opportunity to students to complete an allotment of community service as is mandatory with the school curriculum.

Clean North is the largest community-based environmental group in Northern Ontario.

It operates an environmental resource facility in Sault Ste. Marie with a lending library of more than 4,000 titles.

It also provides high-speed internet access and maintains its own interactive web page (www.cleannorth.org).

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