The second annual PUG (Pick Up Garbage) Day takes place this Friday, (May 12) from 1 to 3 p.m., although residents are welcome to get a head start Thursday evening if they wish.
Plans call for a celebration barbecue to follow at around 4 p.m. Friday in Centennial Park.
The idea is to clean up as much of the community as possible, clearing garbage and debris from streets, alleys and boulevards in the town. Lions Club members will also pick up garbage along the fences that line the railway tracks.
ìA couple of hours of cleanup work by our whole community can leave Olds as one of the cleanest towns in Alberta,î a release from the Lions Club says.
PUG Day planning chair Henry Czarnota is pleased that this year, members of the Seventh Day Adventist youth group have volunteered to clean up the Cornerstone area.
However, they won't be doing so until the following weekend ñ to coincide with a gathering they're holding in the community. Regardless of the timing, Czarnota is grateful for their help.
In total, about 2,000 people are expected to participate in the cleanup, including close to 1,400 schoolchildren, Olds College students, another 200 youth group members, Lions Club members, town officials and councillors, as well as ordinary citizens.
Czarnota says if it's rainy or even snowy, the event will be postponed a week. If it's just drizzling, it may go ahead, but the backup location for the barbecue is the Sportsplex concourse.
ìHopefully, everybody then will take a little bit of ownership in this sort of project and we'll go from there,î Czarnota says. ìBecause, unless you get everything done, the job's not complete. It's hard to say that we've got a clean town if not every part is indeed not attended to.î
"Hopefully, everybody then will take a little bit of ownership in this sort of project and we'll go from there. Because, unless you get everything done, the job's not complete. It's hard to say that we've got a clean town if not every part is indeed not attended to."HENRY CZARNOTAPUG DAY PLANNING CHAIR
