by Rhonda Massad
On the 20th August 2016, at 10 a.m., join EXXpedition Great Lakes for a one-day event to stand up for the health of the Great Lakes and their connecting waterways!
Former Beaconsfield resident biologist Rachel Labbe Bellas was hselected as an eXXpedition crew member and set sail last December. In November 2014, the first eXXpedition set sail with a crew of 14 women across the Atlantic in search of answers relating the health of our environment to the health of our bodies and has since conducted several all women voyages in an effort to make the unseen seen with regards to toxins in our body and in the sea.
Their mission is to raise awareness and work to stop plastic pollution in the Great Lakes by organising the world’s largest simultaneous sampling for microplastics in history!
Now Bellas is home and asking for your help next Saturday to clean up our own backyard. 
This day is about you! Whether you can sail, motor, canoe, kayak, paddleboard or wade into the water – everyone and anyone can take part (male or female, adult or child, solo or in groups) by microplastics sampling for Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation’s Global Microplastic Project and shoreline clean ups with data collection for the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup and Alliance for the Great Lakes’ Adopt-a-Beach Program.
To sign up, visit: www.eXXpedition.com/greatlakes2016
Once you’ve signed up – you will be sent an Information Document with all the instructions you need to connect to these awesome organisations and how to share your story with us on the day! There are going to be lots of amazing ways to make this event fun and engaging for you, your family and friends, even your community! If you’ve got any great ideas, send them to jen@eXXpedition.com
Leading the way on the day will be sailboats on all five Great Lakes, Lake St Clair & the St Lawrence River that will be made up of multidisciplinary all-female crews conducting manta trawling for plastics and water sampling for persistent organic pollutants.
It’s going to be a day dedicated to the Great Lakes – our backyard and our home.
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