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Energy company contributes to beach cleanup

FortisBC spent the morning cleaning up the Bluebird Road South Beach in Kelowna
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FortisBC co-op student Jon Goerzen hauls a branch from the Bluebird Road South Beach, as part of the company’s shoreline cleanup, Saturday July 22. - Credit: Carli Berry/Capital News

Now that Okanagan Lake waters are receding, work has begun to clean up Kelowna’s beautiful beaches.

More than 30 members of FortisBC and their families cleaned debris from the shore of the Bluebird Road South Beach Access, which is part of the City of Kelowna, Saturday July 22.

It’s surprising how far up it came,” said communications advisor Nicole Bogdanovic, pointing to the logs and branches sitting near the top of the beach.

The idea of a shoreline cleanup started from a brainstorming session with the company’s community relations team.

“We always look for community opportunities so with all of the flooding we had, our employees were affected. A lot of our guys were working around the clock to help restore everything,” said community and aboriginal relations manager Shelley Thomson.

The Okanagan floods also had an impact on the energy company.

“We had daily situation meetings and we had upwards of 60 people because we were concerned about our infrastructure and maintaining services to people,” said Bogdanovic.

“We could see what was happening.”

The company members loaded the debris into city trucks after raking and piling branches, logs, and stumps that had washed up along the beach.

“We look for these community opportunities and this was a very clear one,” said Bogdanovic.