The Olds Lions Club is proposing to organize an annual community-wide garbage collection day, with the first to take place this May.
The group presented its vision to council on March 14. Council passed a motion directing administration to work with the Lions Club and other stakeholders to make the event a reality.
There would be more to the day than just picking up litter. Cleanup would take place from 1 to 4 p.m. A community barbecue would follow.
As part of the club's goal to make Olds the "cleanest town in Alberta," they also intend to involve local schools.
"I think it would be a great way for people in our community, especially our young, to appreciate that volunteerism is something everybody can participate in and everybody can join in to make this community better," said the club's Henry Czarnota.
As a school principal in Coronation, he realized "It's amazing how many hundreds of bags of garbage can be picked up and dealt with."
Mayor Judy Dahl is one person on council on board with the idea.
"Our town is pretty clean and we have residents that take pride in that. We have the Communities in Bloom committee, key stakeholders that do go out and clean our town," Dahl said.
Chief operating officer Doug Wagstaff added, "This aligns very, very well with our model at the Town of Olds of how we work with the community ... to have a group that would champion something that the town had done on a smaller scale and make it community-wide and community-driven is just tremendous. Kudos to the Lions to continue developing our community, beautifying our community."
