Frank Adamson does what he does to give back to the community.
“I just love giving back,” he said. “I just get a great delight in doing so.”
One of the ways he has given back to his community – and beyond – was spearheading a clean-up project involving Canadian and American Rotary Clubs cleaning up the Great Lake watershed.
Each year more than 22 million pounds of trash and plastic end up in the Great Lakes.
A staple of the Pelham service club community, Adamson is a member of the Fonthill Rotary Club as well as a board member at Wellsping Niagara just to name a few of his roles.
The retired paramedic and owner of Kwik Fit has served in a number of leadership roles for the Rotary Club beyond just Fonthill, including as the District 7090 Area 7 Governor from 2020 to 2021. The district is called the “Best of Friends” district because it contains clubs from both Canada and the United States.
It was at the height of the pandemic and as the governor that Adamson found himself spending more time than he liked behind Zoom screens.
“I wanted them to do stuff stuff together so I came up with this idea called the Great Lakes watershed cleanup,” he said.
He pointed to how the Niagara peninsula was surrounded by Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, along with the canal and the Niagara River.
“I just thought that maybe doing a cleanup of the waterways and beaches of plastics in particular, was something even, with the pandemic, we could still do that because we're outside, we can socially distance.”
Clubs all around the watershed became involved but not every club in the district sat directly on one of the Great Lakes. What the clubs did have in common, Adamson pointed out, was they all were part of the watershed with waterways feeding into the lakes and river.
Adamson said the first big clean up happened in April of 2020 and is ongoing to this day. To date, 15 districts, hundreds of clubs and thousands of Rotary volunteers have agreed to participate in the cleanup effort.
“One of our areas of focus for Rotary is the environment and protecting the environment,” he explained, adding “we actually came up with that a year before Rotary International took that on as a new focus.”
“That was something I'm pretty proud of,” said Adamson.
Beyond just cleaning, the project also has a goal of educating the public on importance of protecting waterways and instilling a sense of stewardship towards the Great Lakes, which hold almost 20 per cent of the world's fresh water.
As for why he works so tirelessly – Adamson who said he uses part of the money from his Kwik Fit business to support his charities – said he likes “giving back to the community and raising money that's going back into the community.”
“I've spent a lot of time on Rotary above and beyond the club activities but I really enjoy it. It's a wonderful experience.”
Adamson is currently serving as the district assistant governor.