The Ottawa River has a few extra people caring for it these days.
Local businesses in Centretown are holding fundraisers this month for the Ottawa Riverkeeper, an organization dedicated to protecting the Ottawa River.
Monopolatte, the Somerset Street board-game café, and Slater Street’s Live & Learn yoga studio are teaming up to support Riverkeeper’s environmental aims.
Monopolatte, a board game café located at 640 Somerset Street West near Bronson Avenue hosted a game night Feb. 19 called Playing for Keepers.
David Narbaitz, manager of Monopolatte, says he’s happy to support the cause.
“I’m a huge environmentalist,” Narbaitz says. “One of our staff approached us with the idea. The community supports us very well; they come here and they have a good time, but they also spend money which allows us to keep going. In exchange, we like to support the community as best we can.”
Live & Learn – Yoga and Leadership, located at 400 Slater Street near Bay Street, is also holding a fundraising event on Feb. 25 called Stretch for the Ottawa River.
Lynne Lessard, a yoga teacher at Live & Learn – Yoga and Leadership, says she’s keen to help take care of the river.
“(The idea) was something that was brought to me by one of my students and I thought it was very fitting because if we look at the idea of yoga and why I started doing it, it was to take care of myself,” Lessard says. “It quickly becomes a movement practice – you realize that taking care of yourself has to do with the environment that you’re in.”
Lessard says she likes that the Ottawa Riverkeeper is a local organization benefitting local people.
“Not a lot of people really think about taking care of the environment because it’s such a big abstract concept,” she says. “I like that this organization is focused on where we live right now and what our environment is like and the fact that we need to take good care of it.”
Narbaitz and Lessard each reached out to the Ottawa Riverkeeper and proposed the respective fundraising events.
“People like us – we’re like apple pie,” says Ruth McKlusky, manager of partnerships and donor relations for the Ottawa Riverkeeper.
McKlusky says she is pleased with the support from the community.
“There’s just a hot bed of wonderful people in Centretown,” McKlusky says. “The people at Monopolatte and Live & Learn are incredible. More than giving money, which is important too, they are giving back their time and they’re super committed. That’s what really matters to us.”
McKlusky says that it’s important to support the river because it is – among other things, such as a key habitat for aquatic life – the source of municipal water for Ottawa.
The funds raised from both events will go towards the organization’s River Watch program and water testing kits so the quality of the water can be maintained.
The Ottawa River spans on the north side of Centretown and forms much of the Quebec-Ontario border. The river is more than 1,200 km long, stretching southeast from Lake Temiskaming, Ont., to Montréal, where it drains into the St. Lawrence River.
Freshwater fish and mussels are just a few of the many organisms in the river.
Since 2001, the grassroots charity has been working with the community and larger organizations, such as the global Waterkeeper Alliance – a global movement for clean water, to keep the river safe and create awareness it’s health.
Stretch for the Ottawa River is on Feb. 25 and runs from 7-8:30 p.m.