City wide clean up a teaching moment for Moose Jaw youth

Moose Jaw residents participating in the annual city wide clean up. (Luke Simard/CTV Regina News)

Community members in Moose Jaw took part in the city's annual spring clean up on Sunday.

It was the first time the event was held since the start of the pandemic.

Chairman of the clean up committee Kim Robinson said over 90 people participated in this year’s event.

“I think it's a real community pride building event,” said Robinson. “It's nice just to go out in your neighborhood and see everybody getting involved in picking up some trash and beautifying our city.”

Mayor of Moose Jaw, Clive Tolley, brought along some youth to help out in the clean up effort.

“I think (if) people would stop littering there wouldn't be a need, but there is a need so the good citizens have to pick up the stuff, put it in the garbage,” Tolley explained.

“SARCAN is a great place to take some of the bottles, cans, and help the environment, so I'm just encouraging people to stop littering and then we won't have to do (so) much spring cleanup.”

Seeing the effects of litter has shown the local youth how important clean ups are.

“It was nice getting to help (clean) the environment and it's sad to see how much people litter and stuff,” said one of the boys helping the mayor. “A bunch of beer bottles were broken, and it was just sad seeing how bad the environment can be affected by just littering.”

Diana Trodd and her family participate in the event every year and it has become a family tradition.

“As a family we enjoy seeing our city cleaner than it was and knowing when you drive by that little space is a little nicer than it was the day before,” she said.

One of the more common items found were masks.

“We did notice there were masks and a lot of other things,” said Trodd. “You get to see a theme as you start to pick things up like this year you notice fewer plastic straws and there's more paper straws.”

The annual event was a kick-starter for future events the city will be hosting. This includes the sidewalk festival that is set to run at the beginning of July.