Volunteers Needed Today to Help Clean Up Downtown Yellowknife

It’s that time of year.  The snow has melted, leaving behind an unwanted bounty of Bounty wrappers, among other things.  As in years past, the Yellowknife Trash Pick-Up Artists will be getting together on Wednesdays at 5pm at Javaroma to take on this perennial pest.  Today is our first session of 2012.

The Pick-Up Artists have been around since about 2008 and were originally formed to bridge the gap between the annual melt and the launch of the City of YK’s litter cleanup season.  The City tends to wait until every last drop of snow is gone before beginning their cleanup work and it was felt that this left our town in an unacceptable state for several weeks.  Although the entire city is in need of cleanup, we chose to focus on the downtown core, because of its visibility and its importance to the overall image of the town.  Several of the co-founders also happened to be downtown residents and business owners – cleaning up our own back yard, if you will.

There really isn’t all that much to it.  We meet at Javaroma between 5 and 5:30 (where all volunteers receive free coffee or tea), pick up garbage bags, latex gloves and reflective vests, and then we spread out and attack the trash.  It can be cold and windy work, although today that doesn’t appear to be likely.  We ask volunteers to work for as long as they feel comfortable.  You’d be amazed at what you can accomplish in a half hour.

The good news this year is that we likely won’t have to do this more than once or twice.  Unless I’m mistaken, our downtown core looks a lot cleaner than it has in years past.  Furthermore, the snow melted rather quickly this year.  We won’t have to revisit the same old snow piles numerous times waiting for the sun to tease out our targets.

So at any rate, I hope you’ll join me at 5 p.m. today at Javaroma to practice your pick-up skills.  It is fulfilling work that truly does make a difference in our quality of life.

To keep an eye on upcoming events, join the facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/ykpickupartists/.

A huge thanks to our 2012 sponsors:

– Camco Construction
– UNW
– Javaroma
– Bellanca Developments
– Wallbridge Law Office
– Capitol Theatre