Pubdate: Sat, 13 Jul 2013
Source: Cape Breton Post (CN NS)
Copyright: 2013 Cape Breton Post
Contact:  http://www.capebretonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/777
Author: Nancy King

ESKANSONI MAN RAKES BEACH TO KEEP COMMUNITY SAFE

ESKASONI - An Eskasoni man spent four days raking through sand on
Castle Bay Beach searching for used hypodermic needles to ensure the
safety of children using the beach.

Daniel Morris said he was on Facebook one day when he saw a post by
another community member indicating two people had discarded their
needles at the beach. In recent months, there had been three incidents
where children in the community were accidentally stuck by discarded
sharps.

"When I saw that, I thought, 'People are going to be headed there real
soon,'" he said.

Morris also saw others in the community indicate in online postings
that because of the concern over discarded needles, they didn't intend
to use the beach over the summer.

A crisis worker, Morris said he was at work one day when he realized
that the whole community should not be made to suffer because of the
careless actions of a few.

"I just took it upon myself to head down there one day on my day off
and I began raking," said the 38-year-old father of a 12-year-old
daughter. "I don't want to hear about any other kids getting poked by
needles, or even adults, anybody else =C2=85 There could be Hep C, there
could be AIDS, I don't want to hear (about) anything happening."

Using a common yard rake, Morris sifted though the sand on the eastern
side of the beach.

"I did find three needles," he said, adding he took them to the local
ambulance station where they were safely discarded. "It took four
days, but I got her done."

A few curious onlookers dropped by to see Morris at work, and he also
posted about the project on Facebook to let people know what he was
doing.

"Some people were like, 'Oh, you're going to be there forever,' a few
comments like that, but there were a lot of people that commended what
I was doing," he said.

"All the other feedback that I got from Facebook or people that
stopped by, family and friends, stuff like that, they were just so
positive, they were so happy that somebody took the time to actually
go and rake up the beach which is not very small, it's pretty long."

During the process, he posted online photos of his progress and the
needles that he found. Others commented that, since someone did go to
the effort to clean the beach, they now intended to use it over the
summer.

Morris said he will probably take it upon himself to do it against
next year. Over the past several years, Eskasoni has struggled with an
injection drug abuse problem, he noted.

"Me working where I work, I'm starting to notice a lot of people are
trying to sober up and it's catching on, a lot of people, they can see
that sober is the new thing around here," Morris said. "A lot of
people are going to detox and trying to get out of that cycle of using
that method of getting high. It's a tough battle for them."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt