Tenth Annual Love Your Greats Day is August 9
All day
Tenth Annual Love Your Greats Day takes place Saturday, August 9, 2025
Since 2015, Love Your Greats volunteers have helped to protect, enhance the Great Lakes through positive action
What actions can you take, on Love Your Greats Day, and every day, to protect Lake Huron?
A day to celebrate and protect our Great Lakes, called Love Your Greats Day, is held the second Saturday of every August.
Saturday, August 9, 2025 is the tenth annual Love Your Greats (LYG) Day.
Jennifer Pate and Shaun Henry are co-founders of Love Your Greats, which they established in 2015. The initiative is a not-for-profit initiative run entirely by volunteers.
“We created this annual event as a chance to get together as a wider community and to show our love for our shared backyard of the Great Lakes,” they said.
On Love Your Greats Day, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. noon, there are cleanup teams at six locations in Bayfield: beach; river; roads; trails; marina; and underwater.
These teams are led by community collaborators such as Lake Huron Coastal Centre; Ausable Bayfield Conservation; Bayfield Marine; Shopbike Coffee Roasters; Bayfield River Valley Trail Association; Re~Creation; and The Den Juice Co.
Following the cleanups, there is a further activity, from 12 p.m. noon to 2 p.m., to help sort what was collected for proper disposal. This takes place at Bayfield Marine.
The organizers wish to give special thanks to Shelley Reder and her family “who have been incredible supporters of LYG over the years.”
If you plan to attend, you are asked to bring gloves and your own refillable cup. There is a covered area, free drinks and snacks, and information stations. Pets are welcome.
Visit the Love Your Greats website and the Love Your Greats Day web page to learn more.
Love Your Greats Day is a day to highlight positive change for Lake Huron and the other Great Lakes but the LYG founders say people can make a difference every day of the year. They can make this difference by making positive choices and taking positive action where they live, work and play.
The LYG team and volunteers can always be found doing regular cleanups while enjoying their recreational activities throughout the year. If you can’t make it for Love Your Greats Day, they also invite you to join them on Tuesday evenings at 6.30 p.m. (from June to September) for a social paddle from the Bayfield River Flats Natural Area as part of the LYG Rec Club (email info@loveyourgreats.com or message @loveyourgreats on Instagram to find out more).
What actions can you take, on LYG Day, and every day, to protect Lake Huron? There are many ways you can help Lake Huron with positive actions, at home and work, from land to lake:
- Help clean up litter along Lake Huron
- Register for, and take part in, a cleanup event
- Choose products that don’t pollute
- Use a refillable water bottle
- Reduce your use of single-use plastics
- Properly dispose of waste
- Take litterless lunches to the beach
- Plant native species of plants
- Use rain barrels
- Plant trees or donate to local tree planting programs
- Add green infrastructure to your property
- Complete projects that slow down water or capture water running off of your property
“Each positive action you take is a ripple effect both where you live and beyond,” organizers say.
To find out more actions you can take to protect your Great Lake, visit the Healthy Lake Huron – Clean Water, Clean Beaches Partnership at healthylakehuron.ca (and follow Healthy Lake Huron on social media) share your stories by using #loveyourgreats or tagging @loveyourgreats on social media and visit www.loveyourgreats.com