Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

TIDYING THE TOWN

ASK Wellness pitches in to clean twenty Kamloops streets in twenty days

May 11, 2021 | 4:12 PM

KAMLOOPS — Each year, when the sun heats up and the snow melts, a bounty of litter is revealed on city streets. Each year, different community organizations step up and clean up much of that litter throughout Kamloops.

This year, one of those organizations is ASK Wellness, which is in the midst of a ’20 Streets in 20 Days’ clean-up campaign.

For over a week now, groups of staff and clients from the various programs ASK Wellness operates have been popping in neighbourhoods throughout Kamloops. Their goal? To clean up as much trash as they can.

“We’re looking to do twenty streets in twenty days,” initiative organizer Michael McDonald explains. “We’re on day seven today. It’s been really awesome. Last week we pulled out around 150 pounds of garbage and other items off streets around town.”

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On Tuesday, the crew was out on Carson Crescent, near McArthur Island Park. Between five and ten ASK Wellness staffers and clients spent an hour combing the area, looking for any refuse. They were pleasantly surprised by what they found.

“It didn’t seem like [there was that much garbage],” Greg, one member of the crew says.

“We collected about eight bags of garbage today,” Leanne, an ASK Wellness staffer says. “We were surprised to see not a lot of sharps, which was very nice.”

Howard and Alyssa teamed up, walking up and down the road and alleyway. Neither of them could think of a better way to spend a Tuesday morning.

“What’s not to love? It’s beautiful out,” Alyssa says. “Hanging out with buddies, picking up garbage, keeping the place safe and clean.”

Howard enjoys being active: “Get out and get some exercise, and all that,” he says.

According to Leanne, folks in the neighbourhoods have been happy with the job the crews have done, thus far. She says they’re also taking suggestions for different streets to tackle over the next couple of weeks.

“A lot of them have contacted ASK Wellness directly, and say where they would like to garbage picked up,” she says. “If [neighbours] have any tips, they can always get a hold of us on our website.”

When the city heard about the effort, they reached to ASK Wellness to say they would waive all the dump fees for the clean-up crew.

McDonald suggests these kinds of activities can be a great way for an organization to pitch-in for the community.

“It’s been a bit of a team-building activity,” McDonald says. “If you have a company out there that’s doesn’t know what to do as a team, hey, it helps clean up the community and gets everyone out of the office a bit and mingling with folks they wouldn’t normally see. So, that’s been great, as well.”