Shawn Carroll\u2019s efforts to clean up the Sault have sparked an outpouring of support online amid the local father\u2019s weight loss journey <\/p>\n
After losing more than 250 pounds, a local man is using his newfound mobility to clean up his hometown \u2014 and his efforts have sparked an outpouring of support.<\/p>\n
Over the past week, Shawn Carroll has picked up trash piled up at different locations around the city, from the gazebo near Walmart to a stretch of Wellington Street West.<\/p>\n
He spends a few hours at each location, often with a friend and his fianc\u00e9e\u2019s help, picking up trash with rakes and grabber sticks and filling multiple garbage bags for removal.<\/p>\n
\u201cNeedles were a big thing. I was kind of devastated that a lot of kids were going to parks and finding needles, and that was extremely scary and heartbreaking for me because I have a three-year-old son of my own,\u201d Carroll told SooToday.<\/p>\n
Hearing about garbage and disposed needles around the city is something that\u2019s long bothered Carroll, but he wasn\u2019t in a position to tackle the problem until recently.<\/p>\n
He previously weighed more than 600 pounds, but surgery late last year and steady progress at the gym has helped him lose over 250 pounds to date.<\/p>\n
After a trip to Gros Cap with his friend, where they noticed garbage piling up, he realized he was finally in a place where could get out there and do something about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started going to the gym, and then my mobility started to become even better,\u201d Carroll said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said to my friend, I was like, \u2018Oh my God, I want to go out there and pick up garbage.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Since launching his efforts last week, he\u2019s documented his cleanups through social media posts with the hope that others will join.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve been thinking about it for a very, very long time,\u201d Carroll said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA big thing for me too is being born and raised in the city, you want to see your community work together to clean up this mess.\u201d<\/p>\n
His work has been a big hit so far, with hundreds of commenters wishing him well online and some stepping up to help.<\/p>\n
People have donated supplies\u00a0and Algoma Public Health has provided sharps disposal containers to safely dispose of needles.<\/p>\n
One woman with a truck and trailer has offered to pick up garbage bags\u00a0as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said, \u2018Let me know the location of these garbage bags and I’ll come and pick them up and dispose of them for you,\u2019 so I thought that was incredible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew it was going to get support from the community, but I did not expect it to blow up like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
His online posts have led to a long list of locations to go and pick up trash, and he plans to get out as much as possible between his full time work as a security guard, being a father, and hitting the gym.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I’m juggling working overnights, going to the gym now four days a week and picking up garbage pretty much almost every single day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI plan on doing this all summer for as long as I possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n
People have reached out to join in, and Carroll hopes to secure enough grabber sticks and safety gear to let them safely participate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m glad that people are starting to reach out to me and provide me with those supplies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shawn Carroll\u2019s efforts to clean up the Sault have sparked an outpouring of support online amid the local…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48],"class_list":["post-645765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}