Community cleanup initiatives continue following Barrie tornado
Dozens continue to turn out in Barrie's south-end to help restore the neighbourhoods, ravaged by a tornado earlier this month, to their former state.
On Sunday approximately 30 people gathered at Majesty Boulevard and Sun King Crescent, working towards picking up debris including lost shingles and nails.
"Our community needs help…that's what it boils down to," says Sher Braun, the organizer of Sunday's cleanup effort. "We just want to help and make it safe again so the kids can go outside and not have to worry or have their parents worry about children landing on glass or nails or anything like that."
Braun is part of Clean Up Barrie, a Facebook group that is an initiative of Barrie Families Unite. The group has been working towards beautifying Barrie for over a year, but in recent weeks has shifted its attention to the tornado.
"We just want to bring the community-feel back and let the neighbourhood, even though physically it won't look the same right now, that maybe it will have that same feel for the grass and just going for a walk and not seeing the shingles everywhere, pieces of glass to remind everybody," says Braun.
People came from other municipalities as well, wanting to do their part to help, including Laurie Thomas from Aurora.
"I'm human and I hope that the people of Barrie, if something happened in Aurora they would actually come and help as well," says Thomas. "These poor people are out of their homes, a lot of them and I couldn't imagine what that would be like. So I have the time to help so why not?"
Braun says they will continue to help as long as its needed. For details on the group, you can click here.
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