Healthy Lawns, Healthy People.
In the spring of 1997, the lawn of Patricia Running-Horan, a Toronto-based Flight Attendant, was mistakenly sprayed with lawn and garden pesticides instead of her neighbours. At the time, Patricia was working on a flight when her Collie, Cisco, who was fenced-in the yard, inhaled the pesticides and subsequently died as a result of his exposure to the toxins.
Soon afterwards, she began educating herself on these toxins and embarked on a journey she had never envisioned before. Patricia founded Healthy Lawns-Healthy People and eventually became a subcommittee of ecoCaledon (formerly Citizens for a Clean Caledon) a non-profit organization committed to educating the public about the health and environmental consequences of indiscriminate cosmetic pesticide use and to the promotion and implementation of natural alternative lawn care products and procedures.
Since the inception of healthy Lawns-healthy People, the organization has had many successes to be proud of.
We have lobbied the Provincial and Federal Governments as well as our own Municipal Government. Caledon, my community, became the second municipality in Ontario to pass a pesticide by-law preventing the indiscriminate spraying of chemicals. “We were instrumental in forming Pesticide Free Ontario, which connected pesticide-free advocates from all over the province” said Patricia.
Instrumental in the implementation of a “Pesticide-free Week” 2000 – 2002 Participated on the Pesticide Advisory Group which contributed to the development of the Healthy Horticultural Landscapes By-Law Recipients of the CEAC’s Environmentalist of the Year 2002
ecoCaledon 