County of Inverness launches bingo-based beach cleanup contest

The Municipality of the County of Inverness in Cape Breton has started a unique contest called Beach Clean-Up Bingo! to encourage people to pick up litter on local beaches.

The hope is that beachgoers will take the bingo cards — which show pictures of different types of trash like bottles, aluminum cans and cigarette butts — and tick off the boxes as they pick up matching items.

Participants are also encouraged to take pictures of what they pick up and email them to the municipality.

The bingo cards can be printed off from the county's Facebook page, or picked up at municipal offices.

The idea was first trialled in 2021, but the municipality said they didn't draw as many participants as they had hoped for.

"We pressed pause due to the difficulties to engage individuals through COVID. And now we've really been focused on ramping up our education programming again, so we've kicked that off to the public," said Keith MacDonald, the county's chief administrative officer.

MacDonald said after taking a break for a year and making some changes to the contest, the municipality is excited about relaunching the project.

"There's many residents that want to [take part] and feel it's very necessary to help clean up our environment. So we've received really positive feedback," said MacDonald.

'Maybe we can win'

One of the people interested in the project is Mary Janet MacDonald, who has lived in Port Hood most of her life. Although she said she doesn't always go to the beach, she will this year to compete in the contest with her grandchildren.

"When I saw this, I thought, you know what? They would like this and it would give them that little incentive to say, 'maybe we can win, Grandma,'" she said.

Stephanie Myette of Port Hawkesbury shared the county's Facebook post about the contest, and said she hopes her two nephews will take part.

"It'll be good for them to learn about how to save the environment, how to save the Earth, how to sort recycling," she said.

Beach Clean-Up Bingo! started on July 1 and runs until the end of the month. People who submit their cards will be entered in a draw on Aug. 4 to win gift cards from the Mabou Farmers Market.