Gimli chamber and Access Credit Union team up for collective clean-up day
Gimli residents descended on the streets and the beach last week to pick up trash and raise awareness of the importance of protecting their environment.
Volunteers rolled up their sleeves in Gimli on May 27 for the Gimli Town Clean-up, collecting litter from streets, parks and ditches across the community. Participants dropped off their full garbage bags at Access Credit Union, where they were treated to hot dogs, drinks, chips and freezies as thanks for their efforts
The Gimli Chamber of Commerce and Access Credit Union – which sponsored the event – worked in partnership once again this year to organize the annual clean-up initiative that sees scores of residents and staff from businesses get their gloves on and grab their bags to clear garbage from the streets, the beach and the Lake Winnipeg shoreline.
Cheryl Buhler of the chamber’s destination brand committee said they got a healthy volunteer turnout for the scheduled clean-up on Tuesday afternoon, but unspecified numbers of people went out on their own at different times to do their part.
“The weather was perfect. There was a good turnout of 46 people on site,” said Buhler, who registered volunteers along with Kim Giesbrecht of Right Choice Realty. “Other people told us they were going to pick up garbage, but they couldn’t do it at the time we had scheduled for the clean-up. So, they did that on their own time and let us know.”
Staff from the Waterfront Centre, including Tristin Tergesen and Kristin Strachan, looked after the Waterfront area clean-up outside the hours of the collective clean-up, for example, and people at Pelican Beach, just north of Gimli, cleaned that area at a different time.
“People here have a sense of pride in their community and they wanted to participate even though they couldn’t come out on clean-up day,” said Buhler.
As organizers do each year, they created a large map of Gimli and assigned registered volunteers to specific neighbourhoods and areas, said Buhler. After a specific area was cleaned, the corresponding section of the map was coloured in, giving people a “sense of accomplishment.” Most areas of the town were targeted in the clean-up effort.
The Gimli Access Credit Union, which had a lot of staff participating in picking up garbage, provided the volunteers with free hotdogs, chips, Freezies and drinks.
Kathy Sauerborn, vice president of retail banking, said ACU’s partnership with the chamber resulted in another successful town clean-up. And she’s encouraging all ages and groups to get involved in the annual event because a lot can be achieved with “many more hands” helping out.
“This will be an annual event, and our hope is to drive increased numbers of people cleaning up our town. A clean and beautiful town like Gimli has many benefits including attracting more visitors that boost our local tourism and fostering community spirit and pride,” said Sauerborn. “Next year, we will look to start planning early in the year, setting a date in May and challenging all of our businesses and residents to join us in the two-hour event.”
She added that ACU is happy to continue sponsoring the food for volunteers during future clean-up events.
