Christina Lake cleans the neighbourhood

Hosted by the Christina Lake Stewardship Society, the annual community beautification and litter pick-up saw a record 110 people don gloves, safety vests and grab trash bags and register to pick up trash in assigned areas all over the community.

While a few places were considered a priority, like Highway 3 and Swanson Road, Most areas of the community had volunteers walking the streets and back lanes in search of refuse.

The Society has been running Lake Clean Up Day since the society started in 1994, said member Lyra Tuck. While turnouts have usually been good, she said this year's had the highest turnout that they are aware of.

While they had a lot of help, Tuck said people were reporting generally little trash was being found, save for a few hotspots along Highway 3 and other areas known to be illegal party areas.

"The highway tends to be a high priority, and the pull-outs tend to be really bad," she said. "We have a really great couple that comes out every year and they start around 7:30 a.m. and they fill a few bags in the hotspot areas. We've learned where those hotspots are and we either bring people out early, or send multiple teams out. For the most part, the little neighbourhoods tend to be good."

By the end, there were prizes for those who registered, with a total value of $1,000 from Christina Lake Golf Course, Wild Ways, Huckleberry Market, Pony Espresso, Canco and Portly Penguin Pizza, as well as a free BBQ lunch for everyone.

Almost everything is donated, from materials to help clean up, to some funds for prizes from RDKB Area C-Christina Lake Director Grace McGregor, food for the lunch, to the time and labour of GFL sanitation truck that hauled the collected trash away.

RDKB also waives the dumping fees.

McGregor said she talks about this event at RDKB board meetings, especially when someone brings up illegal dumping. Events like this show the community comes together to help keep it clean.

"I say we need to show people what is going on in Christina Lake," she said. "And we are also doing this for our summer people so when they come back out, they know we are doing this for them and it looks pretty darn nice here. The message I'm getting out is this is important for all of us and these are things most of us can do, even if we do a really small area."

One thing she'd like to see is small signs advertising clean-up day while its happening, so passers-by and neighbours are aware people are cleaning the streets in the hopes it generates more interest.